Ctrl, Alt, Zackslash
by JaceDLark
Summary: Three years after the series finished, Ivy deserts ACME to search for Carmen Sandiego on her own. When Carmen challenges the ACME detectives to stop the theft of a lifetime, Zack decides to catch the crook once and for all on his own. Contains SLASH Zack/Krow and fem slash Ivy/Carmen with some OOC.
1. The Departed & Hello, Carmen!

Hey there.

Oops. I started a new story when I have so many others to complete but the plot bunnies made me do it! So let's get the usual jargon out of the way.

DISCLAIMER - No I do not own Carmen Sandiego and since no one knows where she is, I'm hardly surprised. Nothing featured in this story belongs to me except for the plot and the slash. They do - nothing else!

WARNINGS - As mentioned above, this is slash i.e. containing boy on boy (eventually) and even some girl on girl (gasp!) although nothing in the realms of extremely explicit. If you have a problem with this in any way, there are plenty of other safer stories on this website. Go read one of those.

I just watched the series again because I was a child of the eighties which means I was the right age to watch this on TV back in the day. I always had a soft spot for Carmen and I found her an intriguing character. While I was nostalgic, I though - wow, this has the potential to be a great slash story. If only Ivy would bugger off! Thus my idea was born.

I hope you enjoy, Jace.

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**Ctrl, Alt, Zackslash**

_Chapter One - The Departed & Hello, Carmen!_

_Zack._

_I'm sorry. I just can't take it anymore. She's driving me insane. I know it's cowardly of me to do it this way, just leaving you a note of explanation but it was the only way I could actually tell you._

_I've gone after Carmen Sandiego myself._

_I know we've always been a team and a damn good one at that but this is something I need to do on my own. We've been tailing her for a few years now and she MUST be brought to justice._

_Don't forget that no matter what happens, I love you and I hope I'll see you soon but with her, it might take some time. Stay out of trouble little bro._

_Ivy._

I couldn't say I was surprised when I read the letter Ivy had left me on the desk in my bedroom. The envelope had been unremarkable but the instant I saw my name clearly written in my sister's flowing script, I knew she had left. We'd been an unstoppable force for a few years now. Looking back on some of our earlier cases, if we'd been a few years older and wiser, we would have caught the scarlet-coated thief ages ago. Of course, now that all those clues had been solved, I might be remembering rather than solving so I can't really quantify our combined intelligence as accurately as I would prefer.

If you haven't already noticed, my vocabulary has improved. Vastly. I may only be seventeen but I don't want to be an agent forever you know! In many ways, this is the main difference between Ivy and I. She wants to be an agent, the best agent of all time. The one who finally puts Carmen Sandiego away for good. Me? I love a good mystery as much as the next guy but I don't want to be doing this for the rest of my life. There's so many times where it's just a plain nuisance to heedlessly travel the world through the C5 corridor. Do you know how many times I was eating? What about in a few years when I start drinking (in public anyway - don't tell Ivy) and maybe even trying out something a little stronger? I'd either be an embarrassingly drunken mess or the velocity of the C5 corridor might make me hurl. Or both. Ew. One day I do want to be in a relationship too and I don't really think that jet setting around the globe is a settling down kind of occupation.

In actuality (like with most things) it was Carmen who provided me with the inspiring idea of pursuing a literary career. When she led us on that quest about famous authors who wrote stories about orphans and we later learned that Carmen Sandiego was an orphan herself, I realised just how connected she must have been to that particular heist. She wanted to write her memoirs, her story. It made me want to create some stories of my own. So I've been working hard at my writing skills. My incite into other languages made picking up the more complex aspects of English pretty damn easy. I never told Ivy though because I didn't want to cause a rift between us. Well, I suppose that's now a moot point. Maybe I should resign for ACME since she's left.

I still can't believe she copped out in a letter. Well, I can about the leaving part but I thought she'd have the balls to say it to my face. Then again, with Carmen in the picture Ivy rarely thinks straight. I don't believe she realises exactly how much of her time has been spent thinking, complaining, plotting against and basically living for Carmen Sandiego. Notice is said FOR Carmen and not to CAPTURE Carmen. I used to think that if we ever caught the woman, we'd cuff her and send her to the big house. Now I'm not so sure. I have a strong suspicion that if Ivy did manage to snag the master thief, she wouldn't be able to arrest her.

As weird as it sounds, Carmen feels like an older sister to me. I would never have learned half the things I had if it weren't for her. She always left small yet incredibly clever clues and I must admit, I always found solving them to be extremely satisfying. Despite the fact I don't think I've ever actually touched her, she's been the second most important woman in my life. Does it make me a horrible son to think that I found her to be more important than my own mother? I also think she has a soft spot for us as well. The scarlet woman's life would certainly be much easier if we were permanently out of the way yet she's managed to save our lives a few times over the years.

If Carmen has become a sister-figure to me, I'm sure she's worth much more to Ivy. I think the turning point in my sister's point of view was when we had to work with Carmen. That time when we were both trapped by Sara Bellum was odd. It was the first time Carmen had really stopped to notice how good we were and the three of us needed to work together to escape but the clincher happened much later. When Carmen and Chief were faced with the return of Maelstrom and we'd arrested him again, Ivy said something which stayed trapped in my mind. "It was really strange working WITH Carmen for a change, huh little bro?" What struck me as odd was that she only thought it strange. Before then, she would have found it repulsive to work in any way with Carmen Sandiego but people change with time. Instead, she actually sounded like she had somewhat enjoyed the debacle.

I may be going out on a bit of a limb here but I'm almost certain that Ivy's got (at the very least) a crush on the bane of ACME's existence. Of course my hard-headed sister hasn't worked it out for herself yet but I'm sure she will soon. Poor Josh never had a chance. Sure, he did spark her interest but so did Marco. Notice what those two guys have in common? Marco's a motorbike enthusiast and Josh, he's an inventor. Out of those two and Carmen, who is the most technologically savvy? Obviously, Miss Scarlet on the Air-cycle with the four Candlesticks she'd just stolen from the Our Lady of Manaoag Museum in the Philippines. I just hope Ivy works out she's attracted to a super villain before it lands her in trouble. I also hope she doesn't freak out and do anything stupid...

The bleeping of my wristwatch snapped me from my thoughts. I shook my head, causing my blonde hair to whip about. Looking away from the letter that I'd been staring at for the last few minutes, I pressed the button and the pink floating screen to which I had come to accept as normal jumped up onto a nearby wall. "Greetings Zack!" chirped the over-exuberant voice of the Chief. The floating head bobbled around nauseatingly with a wide Cheshire Cat-like grin.

"Hey Chief," I automatically replied.

"So where's Ivy? Carmen's on the move again so you've got to hurry!" said Chief, his expanded eyes sweeping around the room as he searched for someone who had probably left hours ago.

I looked at the still bobbling head with a wry grin. "Well, she's flown the coop. She's gone to hunt down Carmen all on her own."

A frown graced Chief's face. "She's WHAT?" he screeched. His head mercifully froze in place and I was finally able to focus on him without the need to continuously blink.

We both knew he didn't need me to repeat it so I just continued to stare at him. Just as I was about to ask what the raven tressed woman was up to this time, Chief's head tilted to the side and I figured he was listening to another conversation somewhere. I wondered if it had something to do with my missing sibling.

"Hold the phone! Change of plans. I need you at HQ five minutes ago. We have an emergency." Without so much as a "Cheerio!" the Chief disappeared as abruptly as he'd materialized in the first place.

"Player, C5 me to ACME headquarters," I called out and in a flash of light blue light, I was dumped unceremoniously in the corner of the briefing room.

It was a large room which bared a resemblance to the Colosseum in Rome that we'd, I mean Ivy and I had saved once in the past. I really have to stop thinking of the two of us as a pair. She's not here anymore. Anyway, the room is circular with chairs spaced around the circumference. Just like with the Colosseum, the closer the chair is to the walls, the higher it was raised from ground level. The main difference between the coveted landmark and our briefing room was a large, dome shape which was suspended from the centre of the ceiling. I suppose the best to describe it would be that it was similar to a diamond-vision screen from a basketball or hockey match without the edges. All the chairs in the room were tilted in the direction of the dome.

There were many flashes of light around the room and some ACME agents were already seated. This was only the third time I had been here before. The first was when w... Ivy and I were given a guided tour of the headquarters when we were first accepted into ACME after our training. That was only for a few moments before we were quickly ushered out. The second time was a few months ago when Carmen became even more ambitious than usual and she'd hatched a scheme to steal the sun itself. It was the first time I'd ever seen so many ACME agents in one place. I have a strong suspicion that everyone who was an agent was present for that particular caper. Just thinking about what would have happened if she'd succeeded still causes me to shudder.

I noticed someone waving in my direction and I quickly made my way over so I could snag a seat next to somebody I already knew. If last time was any indication, there would be many unfamiliar faces. I may know a lot of agents but there are plenty more at ACME's disposal. To my delight, it was Tatiana. The Russian woman (she'd grown up too!) was still dressed in her customary blue colours but she'd taken off her jacket since it was summer in San Francisco at the moment.

"Hello, Zack!" purred the Russian beauty warmly. "It is good to be seeing you."

"Same here, Tatty," I replied with a smile. I remember the first time I met her, right when the C5 had dropped me face first into the snow. It wasn't until last year that we were good enough friends for me to get away with the nickname. Before she started to like it, I got hit more than a few times. I wore her down but I like to think that she actually likes the name I gifted her.

A delicate eyebrow raised itself on her face. "Where is Ivy?"

I coughed a little in surprise, although I really shouldn't be since everyone here (that we've worked with) would have seen us together since we went on that case all those years ago. "Well, she kinda went rogue to hunt down Carmen on her own." Why sugar-coat it? The agency would see it as a betrayal and there's also a possibility that she could become a target with ACME agents on her trail.

Tatiana gasped in return. "Really?" she squeaked.

I nodded with a humourless smile on my face.

"So she left like you were thinking she would a couple of months ago." The Russian belle was the only person who I'd shared my thoughts about Ivy with. After we had two disastrous dates together (both of which were due to my poor balance and/or judgment) we decided we were more suited as friends than boy and girlfriends. As much as Armando and Josh are my friends, Tatty's always the one I turn to for good advice especially about emotions. Don't look so surprised. At least I know I have a retarded emotional range especially when it comes to dating and relationships. She's always there for me if in need help choosing an outfit or with advice about things I shouldn't discuss when I'm on a date.

"Who left you? Aileen?" asked a voice from behind us. I turned around to find Lee sitting behind me. His hair looked like it was longer than the last time I saw him which is really saying something.

Tatiana started giggling and futilely tried to hide it behind a hand as I snorted. "Dude, I've never even gone out with her. I'd ask where you've been hiding but I know all you ever do is sit in front of your computer." This caused Tatty to giggle even louder and Lee to roll his eyes.

"Stop picking on my boyfriend, Zackary," growled Ayako menacingly, as she sat next to Lee. I only met Ayako last year and she was not what I expected. Ivy and I were tracking Carmen at Nagoya in Japan, since her latest clue pointed us in the direction of the Bullet Train. We didn't know too much about the train at the time and asked the Player to find someone on the detective roster to help us. We landed at the station (thankfully not on the tracks themselves) and within moments a sixteen year old Japanese girl materialised nearby. She was quite short with the usual black coloured hair of her countrymen and women. Her eyes were wide and expressive and she met us with a traditional bow.

After we returned the gesture, I began to describe how Carmen was going to steal the train but we didn't know when the bullet train would be here. The demure girl reached out her hand and slapped me. If I wasn't so shocked, I would have been extremely angry. She informed me in no uncertain terms of my stupidity and explained how there were many bullet trains (or Shinkansen as they are called in Japan) and some were as regular as every four minutes. It wasn't until Ayako worked out a part of the clue that we'd been unsure about that she was able to deduce which train (the Tokaido Shinkansen) Carmen would try to steal. Since then I held no real fondness for the girl. I could see the appeal for Lee though. She was beautiful with her porcelain white skin but was definitely as volatile as a firecracker.

"My dear, sweet, delicate Aya-cow," I intentionally mispronounced which caused the girl's already slitted eyes to narrow further. "I would never, ever, ever think to be as stupid as to pick on the magnificence of Lee. In your presence, that is." I sent a sickeningly sweet smile her way and the Japanese girl sniffed and folded her arms. If I weren't so busy trying to piss her off, I would have been rolling around the floor laughing hysterically.

Tatiana finally got her case of the giggles under control and turned to face Lee. "What you wanted to know before Zack started being, well, Zack..."

"Hey!" I interjected.

"...is that..." Tatiana drifted off and eyed me. I nodded at her unasked question and she continued. "Is that Ivy has left to search for Carmen on her own." Lee looked shocked and even Ayako tried (but failed) to hide her astonishment.

"Really?" queried Armando as the gaucho sat on my left side. He looked more concerned than surprised.

"Yeah, she left me a note and everything," I added even though I don't know why I bothered as Armando's attention had already turned to Tatiana. I suppressed a sigh. The Argentine agent had been silently pining over my friend for the last two years although Tatty is yet to realise it. How can people be so dense? Ivy doesn't know she likes Carmen, Tatiana has no clue Armando likes her (and he's so freaking obvious about it too!) At least Lee worked up the courage to ask out Ayako or I'd probably be forced to smash my head repeatedly against a wall to distract me from all the drama.

The flashes of C5 light were starting to slow in frequency and most of the chairs were now filled.

"ALRIGHT!" boomed the amplified voice of Chief and the conversations died down quickly. The lights dimmed a little and the buoyant head of Chief popped into existence in the dome on the roof. Due to the curvature of the glass, no matter which direction someone looked at it from, his head appeared to be facing the right way. Neat. Now that everyone's attention was firmly fixed on him, Chief started to speak at a more normal (well, for him anyway) volume level. "Alrighty intrepid crime-stoppers, I have three super important things you all absolutely, definitely, positively need to know right now."

There was a deafening and prolonged silence.

"Would you get on with it?" bellowed a voice from the back on the opposite side of the circular room.

Chief blinked a couple of times. "Oh yeah, that." The Chief shook his head with a couple of sound effects before clearing his throat. "Numero uno, señores and señoras. On Tuesday, the C5 corridor will be closed for maintenance from 5 to 6pm Pacific Daylight Time. If you don't like it, well that's too bad."

There were a few scattered mumblings but they died down quickly.

"Secondly," continued Chief as if no one had made a sound, "Ivy Knight has left ACME for the foreseeable future." This time the mutterings were much louder and I could see faces searching for me from all around the room. The awkwardness in the room was murder. "And the last and most important thing of all, Carmen Sandiego wants to have a small word - with all of you - RIGHT NOW!"

Before anyone could blink Carmen Sandiego's voice wafted serenely through the room. "Thanks Chief for that delightful introduction." The room plunged into dead silence as the ACME detectives of the world listened to the woman they'd been hunting down for the last thirteen years. "I asked Chief to gather you together for a very special announcement. I am about to make the theft of a lifetime. All my previous crimes will pale in comparison."

"So why are you here gloating for something you haven't done yet?" yelled Amati from the other side of the room. The African-American man glowered into mid-air since we only had an audio feed.

Carmen's voice continued, unruffled by the interjection. "Patience, my dear Amati. The game's no fun if it isn't challenging now, is it? Just to spice things up, I'm changing the rules. Every other heist had a theme. Nostalgia, famous authors, music, the dramatic arts and such. This one does not. The clues don't correlate to each other so this will test you more than anything else ever has. Tell me detectives, what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?"

There was a silence at her words before some suggestions were called out.

"Love?" questioned Tatiana, not noticing Armando's admiring eyes as she spoke.

"Greed!" shouted someone who was shushed from someone else nearby.

A low male voice supplied, "Honour."

I rolled my eyes. Didn't anyone read nowadays? "Forty-two," I called out.

"What? Where did that come from?" demanded Krow a few seats over. His eyes landed on me and I shrugged in response.

"As always, Zack, you are very perceptive," Carmen's silky smooth voice rang out once again, quietening the confused conversations that had started around the room. "Care to explain to the class, Professor Knight?"

"Fine," I acquiesced. I really didn't want to draw attention to myself after Chief announced the disappearance of Ivy but I really didn't want to pique Carmen's interest by acting differently to normal. "In Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings built a super-computer called Deep Throat. It was created to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. It did and the answer was the number forty-two."

"Correct, as always Zack. A phenomenal performance." I could almost see Carmen's smile and that somewhat concerned me. "Forty-two days. That's all I need to pull off the theft of a lifetime. Each day from now until then I will take two of the Earth's treasures."

"But that's eighty-four artefacts!" squeaked a feminie voice from somewhere nearby.

"Yes, Aileen. I wonder how well you will do when none of the clues are connected. So I've decided to make the chase more interesting. Although I'm certain none of you will succeed, if an ACME detective does manage to capture me, I'll return all of the artefacts completely unharmed."

"WHAT!" screeched someone to my left. "No way! You'd never return something, let alone everything."

"Are you sure about that Aurelia?" questioned Carmen softly. "I have returned some items before. Like the Rosetta Stone for instance." I nodded to myself, remembering the caper in North America where Carmen was suffering from nightmares. "Now, if you attempt to capture me and I manage to escape you, I will not send you any more clues. If you have already tried to arrest me once and then do manage to catch me anyway, I won't disclose the location of my stashed treasures. In other words, you only get one chance each, detectives. Don't be discouraged, as a bonus, I'll also grant a request of the detective that captures me, within reason of course."

I noticed that with this personal and delectable prize, ACME will want to work together at all. There may be small pairs and trios but the organisation as a whole has just been destroyed. The sad part is that the detectives don't even know it yet. Fools. Just a glance around the room showed me that many an agent was contemplating what they would force Carmen to do if they caught her. She's definitely a class above, that woman.

Ivy would have realised this too if she were here. As if my brief thoughts of my sister had transferred through the air, Carmen addressed the captive audience once more. "Why so quiet, Ivy?"

I answered quickly so she'd hear it from me. "She doesn't work at ACME anymore, Carmen."

"Really?" asked Carmen with surprise, a sound I've rarely heard in her voice before. "Well, I suppose I'm definitely going to pull this one off then." Despite her gloating words, I wondered if I was the only one who could hear the small tinge of regret in her tone. "Good luck detectives, you'll need it in abundance to catch me. So here's your first clue."

The watches around the room started to bleep and I didn't bother to press mine since I didn't want to add to the already loud din of Carmen's repeated voice echoing throughout the room. I couldn't make out a single word and apparently neither could anyone else since many of them were already C5ing out of there as fast as they could. In fact, after a few moments, there were only twelve ACME agents left in the room.

Originally, I was going to corner Chief after the meeting and let him know that I was leaving the agency. I'd just lost my sister and with how slippery the crook is, chances are it'll be for a long time but then Carmen changed the rules. She's never given us such a clear game plan or a time window before and if I can manage to snag the woman, I can get my sister back. Sure it'll be fun to escape her for a while but within a week I know I'll already be missing her. Maybe I could even ask Carmen to find Ivy for me as my request. No. I'm definitely staying a little longer in ACME but this will be my last roll of the dice.

"Hey, Ta-ta-tatiana, d'you wanna work on this c-case with me?" asked a shifty Armando, snapping me from my thoughts.

Tatty smiled briefly but glanced at me with concern. "Can I work with Armando, Zack?"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't know why you're asking MY permission. I'm not your mother. Go, knock yourself out. I'm sure you'll make a great team." In reality, I did know why she asked. If I'd wanted to work with her she would have refused. She probably wants to make sure that I'll be alright without Ivy. It's sweet of her but really, I'm more surprised Armando had finally worked up the courage to talk to my Russian princess.

Armando walked past me and the two disappeared in a flash of familiar blue light.

"Hey Zack," called a deep voice. I turned around to face the Norwegian agent Krow. "Would you like to work on this case together?" I was taken aback. Despite how well we've worked together on couple of cases in the past, we've never really had anything to do with each other before. In fact, I always got the feeling he barely tolerated me and my infinite amount of high fives I've forced on him over the past few years. At least I'm roughly the same height as him now.

"Thanks, Krow but I wanna try doing this one on my own. It's always been Ivy and Zack. Now that she's gone, I want to see how well Zack operates on his own. It's nothing personal, dude. If you wanna put our heads together sometime, that'd be cool but I want to try this solo first." I flashed him a small smile and he bobbed his head in understanding. His expression was unfathomable but he didn't seem angry which I saw as a plus.

"No problem, Zack. The same goes for you. If you are wanting to brainstorm with someone I'm only a C5 away." The Scandinavian disappeared in a flash of blue and I quickly did the same.

I appeared in my house and moved to my desk. It was my favourite place in the house. I pulled my chair out and collapsed into it, placing my hands on my desk. It was a fine, sturdy creation made of mahogany. The desk was over two meters wide and at least one and a half deep. There were several bookshelves above my desk which allowed me to keep my collected works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dame Agatha Christie, Janet Evanovich and even Dan Brown. Although I bought his novels to pick apart due to all of the inconsistencies I could find. I want to be a mystery writer myself one day (as if you couldn't already tell) and if pulling his stories to pieces can make me a better writer, I'll definitely consider that money well spent.

Between the bookshelves and the desk itself, I'd attached a noticeboard. I removed the map of the Earth and the other miscellaneous items which I not so carefully stowed away in a random drawer and I moved the remaining tacks to the side in a neat row, leaving me plenty of room to work.

Surprised I'm not recklessly running into action already? Usually that's Ivy's kind of thing. Also, if we missed a clue because we were too slow, we lost. From the way Carmen was talking before, she'll be delivering the clues directly to us. This time I can relax in the comfort of my own home, make deductions and when I'm completely sure I'm correct, I'll make my move then. Perhaps I have managed to learn the importance of taking my time, as Suhara once suggested.

Then again, I have been studying the literary works of some of the best detectives of all time. There appears to be two types of detectives. The first is termed hard-boiled because they tend to use fist-fights, firearms and dogged tracking through a combination of clues and interrogation. My favourite detectives of this genre are Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. In many ways, Ivy and I were a lot like this. We solve a clue but almost immediately we'd rush off to catch Carmen without really formulating any sort of plan until we were already halfway through an attempted arrest.

No. I think this time I should take the less aggressive and usually more effective approach of my three favourite detectives of all time. Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, and Miss Marple. Instead of heading thoughtlessly into action, these three tend to take a softer approach where they carefully examine the clues of a case and formulate a plan of action whether it be through brain exercise, a process of elimination or a knowledge of psychology and life experience. Don't bring up that embarrassing episode where I tried acting like Sherlock Holmes, I was only fourteen then. I was allowed to act like a complete moron.

I have a forty-two day window to crack this case and get my sister back.

So I started with what I'd already heard. There were two things that struck me as peculiar when Carmen was talking to us earlier.

First things first. Carmen was full of shit. Well, perhaps. The fact remains that she's never just randomly stolen things in her illustrious career before and she sure as hell isn't about to start doing that now. The items themselves may not have a connection with each other but in some way, there will be a very specific reason they were selected. Also, the meticulous number of thefts (84) or days (42) also support my theory that the robberies themselves wont be random at all, despite her protestations.

The other thing that struck me as odd was the way Carmen said something twice, an unusual act for her. I grabbed a strip of paper and penned _The Theft of a Lifetime._ Tacking it to my noticeboard, I frowned. If this was going to be the theft of a lifetime, it'll have to be pretty damn impressive.

Pulling my watch out from under my jacket, I pressed the flashing red button to listen to Carmen's message.

"Greetings detective. Here's my first clue. _With silver to her left and gold to her right, I'll steal this treat for your six senses tonight. But her arms have grown real tired and I've found a friend from VILE, who will swap them with a woman who once shared a common title. Can you find the one that's missing from my stylish little Princess who used to be so honourable before Her Royal Highness._"

Since the clue was so long, I wrote it down on a spare page in front of me and set about unravelling it. Carmen Sandiego would be mine.


	2. An American in Paris & Zach, Interrupted

Heya_.  
_

Here's chapter two. Yes, I've shamlessly taken the names of Academy Awards winning film titles and altered them slightly for my chapter titles.

Two things I forgot to mention last chapter.

1) I've tried to be as historically correct as possible. Most of my information came from the net so I don't know how accurate it is. The only information I intend to create is where some of the relics can be found. How the freaking heck would I know where a specific Picasso painting is on display? Especially since most artworks travel the world from museum to museum. Unless there is a "home" for an artwork, I have to invent one. Be safe in the knowledge that each item actually exists. i.e. No phantom goblets belonging to Queen Isabella of Spain in this story... Unless she owned one that is...

2) I'm Australian, which means I use the spellings and phrases relevant to my home country. Hopefully my intentions are still clear although I may use words in unexpected places or even a word or two that you mightn't have met yet. I'm not going to change or apologise for it but I did think it was fair that you know (or at least so you can't say I didn't warn you...)

Huge shout out to **green lion **for my first Carmen review ever. Yay! Honestly, I didn't think anyone would review because let's face it, Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego is an older series which many younger people haven't even heard of. The odds of readers recognising the content and not minding the slash - well, let's just say I'm ever so pleasantly surprised. I hope this next chapter lives up to your expectations (and maybe even surprises you!)

In conclusion, writing Chief is totally fucked up. I'd love some con crit about it if y'all don't mind.

Cheers, Jace.

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_Chapter Two - An American in Paris & Zack Interrupted_

I looked at the words I'd just written in front of me. How odd. There are only five senses. Sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. A sixth sense usually indicates a paranormal sense. Seeing ghosts, aliens etc. Not Carmen's usual style. Although she did steal Stonehenge in connection with aliens a few years ago. Hmm. I think I'll have to come back to that part.

The clue said something about two women with a common title. So they must be some sort of nobility to have a title. I could search Princesses and Queens (who are referred to as Her Royal Highness) but I have a feeling there would be so many, the ACME crimenet would overload. There must be something I'm missing. What's with the stylish part? The only stylish royal I can think of is Charles the II of England. He was the height of fashion during his reign from 1630 to 1685. He started wearing button links in his sleeves and the trend spread throughout Europe. That was how cufflinks grew into popularity. Unfortunately, he was a king, not a queen.

Maybe, stylish means something else. "Player, define the word style."

Chief popped into existence on my noticeboard and started spouting his usual conglomerate of facts. "A style is a specific kind or type of something. Like in a Baroque style or the style of the 1960s or even, dare I say it, a theft in the style of Carmen Sandiego. Of course, style also refers to fashion, like how our super criminal usually dons red. Let's just say it's not just her colour it's also her style."

"Chief," I interrupted, since he was once again dressing himself in Carmen's hat and shoes. Maybe he has a cross-dressing fetish? Ew. "I'm pretty sure that although Carmen has style, that's not the kind of style she means. What else is there?"

"Well, a style is another name for a gnomon. It's the pointy part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The sundial was thought to be used by the ancient Egyptians around 3500 BC who created structures called obelisks. They learned to judge what the time was by where the sun would cast it's shadow. About two thousand years later, the Babylonians were already using sundials or shadow clocks as they called them." Chief's head sat in the middle of a map and he kept looking between the locations of where the two ancient civilisations once were as he talked.

"I'm still not sure that's what we're looking for. Is there anything else, Chief?" Although interesting, I didn't think this had anything to do with sundials. It had to do with women and arms and stuff.

"Alrighty, Zack, how about this? A style is a given title or a name, like how the Pope is referred to as His Holiness."

That got my interest. "Women sharing a common title? A style is a special kind of title? This sounds promising." I thought back to the clue. _Can you find the one that's missing from my stylish little Princess who used to be so honourable before Her Royal Highness._ "Player, cross reference women with the style of Princess and Her Royal Highness."

"Zacky boy, there's too many to compute. We still need to narrow it down."

"What's with the honourable part?" I wondered aloud.

"Well," answered Chief, "a woman of the court is referred to as Honourable if she's engaged to a prince."

"You mean it's a style?" I questioned in surprise. What an odd title.

"Yes, correctimundo, dude!" chirped chief as he pretended to surf around his screen before falling into the ocean.

"I'll give you an eight for style, Chief. So she was Honourable before she was married and then became Her Royal Highness but how can she be just a Princess now?"

"Divorce, my intrepid crime stopper. By divorcing a Prince, the woman would not be allowed to retain her style as Her Royal Highness, and would instead become a Princess but only if she had born a son."

Hmm. "The only divorced Princess I can think of is Diana, Princess of Wales."

"Correct you are. From 1961 to 1975, she was known as The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer. 1981 to 1996 she was Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales and from then on after her divorce was finalised, just Diana, Princess of Wales. Now ain't that a lot of titles for you?"

"But Chief," I said, "What was her title from 1975 to 1981?"

Chief bobbed around and put on a pompous British accent while cups and a teapot appeared on his screen. "Her title was The Lady Diana Frances Spencer. Care for some tea, milady?"

"So that must be the missing style that Carmen was talking about. Lady. So we're looking for a Lady with gold and silver who's a treat for six senses? I don't know if that actually helps." I didn't feel particularly good about cracking a third of the clue. Wait what was that second sentence again?_ But her arms have grown real tired and I've found a friend from VILE, who will swap them with a woman who once shared a common title._ "Wait a minute, what if the arms she's talking about isn't Diana's real arms (which would be creepy since she's no longer alive) but a coat of arms. Chief, did Lady Diana have a coat of arms?"

Chief nodded enthusiastically. "She most certainly did. In fact she had several."

"So this other Lady, the one Carmen's after would have a Coat of Arms too." What was the rest of the clue again? _With silver to her left and gold to her right, I'll steal this treat for your six senses tonight._

I hope this works. "Player," I called out, "cross-check Lady, Coat of Arms, Silver and Gold."

The Chief shook his head and the hideous tea set was replaced with a sombrero. "In Mexico, the city of Guanajuato has a coat of arms with a blindfolded lady in a silver dress." A picture of the coat of arms appeared for me to see.

"I don't think so, there's no gold on her right. It must be something else. Plus I don't think Carmen would try to take a whole city. Whatever she's after most likely has a coat of arms on it and there's probably six of them. Why else would she talk about six senses? Player, add the number six into the search."

"The Lady and the Unicorn is a set of six tapestries dating back to the 1500s. The first five are attributed to a different sense and the sixth is quite mysterious. No one knows exactly what the last one means. Some claim it to be love or desire, others understanding. The tapestries are currently housed in the Musée National du Moyen-Âge. Also known as the Cluny Museum in Paris, France."

An image of the last tapestry displayed itself in front of me. There was a lady in the centre in front of a tent. To her left was a unicorn and to her right, a lion. Each held a pole with a pennant of a coat of arms. "Five senses plus one other, gold lion, silver unicorn, coats of arms and a lady? It all fits. Thanks Chief."

Now that I know what she's after what should I do about it? I don't want to use my one opportunity to catch Carmen yet. Plus I have no idea about her master plan and of all her eighty-four heists, this one would be the most carefully designed since she'll probably be bombarded with hundreds of ACME agents. She always accounts for every variable and as smart as I am, she'll be seven steps ahead of me. If I am to catch her, she'll out-think me unless I can distract her. Who better to divert Carmen than Ivy but I don't know where she is. Pity. Then again maybe I don't have to know myself. A plan started to formulate in my head.

"Player, C5 me to the Cluny Museum in Paris, France," I called out and was immediately sucked into the blue light. I hope I have an easy landing this time. It was, sort of. I fell into a leafy bush and gingerly rose to my feet. After more than three years of this, you'd think I'd have perfected the landing by now. I looked around me and realised I was in the Forêt de la Licorne, which translates to the Forest of the Unicorn. When the Cluny Museum actually became a museum, a lot of the content was related to the tapestries themselves. The gardens which opened in 1971 paid homage to the prolific artworks.

I was admitted to the museum by a muttering security guard. He complained about the number of ACME agents here already. I ran into several of them and even stopped to say hi to Aileen, who was staking out a corridor near the room itself. When I neared the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry room, I found the fire escape I was looking for. Sneaking inside, I ran up the stairwell and stole into the room directly above the artworks and sat patiently on the floor. I figured Carmen would go one of two ways. She would either gain entry to the collection from the roof, or she would steal the entire turret. As if she'd try going through the front door with this many agents loose in the castle.

After about an hour, there was a small buzzing sound to my right. I saw a portion of the roof fall out and the lady of the moment stepped cautiously into the room. She looked at me and I looked at her.

"Here already Zack?" she purred although I could hear a little astonishment in her tone. Good. "If you were working with your sister, I'd have expected you here but not on your own."

Shrugging my shoulders from my spot on the floor, I gave her a grin. "Don't get too excited Carmen, I'm not here to arrest you anyway."

Her eyes widened. "What?" It looks like for the first time ever, I actually managed to surprise the woman into a single word statement. Go me!

"Actually I wanted a little chat. Even though you're busy, can I steal a moment out of your schedule?" I asked politely.

"You easily solve my first clue but all you want is a bit of chitchat?" She folded her arms and looked sternly at me.

"Ah, yeah."

"Well, if you're no here to stop me, I suppose we can have a small tête-à-tête while my colleagues get to work," the woman in red acquiesced.

Within moments twelve henchmen entered the room, each pair carrying a cylinder between them. They started sawing holes above (no doubt) where the tapestries hung below while the others started unrolling tapestries from the cylinders. Ah, so it was a switcheroo. Got it.

"So, I started as I brought my mind back to the present. "I was thinking about earlier today at the meeting. You sounded pretty disappointed that Ivy wouldn't be in on the chase."

Carmen sighed. "I will admit I hoped she would try to foil me." Her wistful tone caused me to internally smile.

I looked the woman in the eyes from my vantage point on the floor. "Do you know?" I asked sternly.

"Do I know what?" replied Carmen, raising an eyebrow.

I rolled my eyes. The mistress of deception was for once clueless. Oh the irony. "Do you know how Ivy feels about you?"

Her eyebrow dropped and joined it's sister as she furrowed them. "I, I don't understand."

Smacking my head in exasperation, I spelt it out for her. "Ivy has feelings for you Carmen, although she doesn't even know it yet."

Carmen's expression became unfathomable. "Why are you telling me this?" she voiced softly.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I know you're different from the average thief. You have scruples, honour and it's more about the chase than the prize. Now that I've told you, I'm certain you won't use this as an advantage against my sister. You're better than that. Basically, I'm just looking out for her." I squirmed a little at the intense gaze she directed my way. It felt like she was x-raying me. I just prayed to whatever deity's out there that Ivy would forgive me for telling Carmen. She can't stay mad at me forever, I hope.

"Thank you, Zack. I give you my word that I will not misuse this information. Although, I don't know why you told me of her feelings for me when she's not even a part of the chase."

Giving her a crooked smile I said, "About that, there may be a way you could get her involved. In fact, if you did (since she's not a part of ACME anymore) well, she could hunt you down without your earlier restrictions to both of your heart's content." I noticed how Carmen seemed to perk up a little at this information and a suspicion that Ivy's feelings might not be completely unrequited entered my mind.

"So what, prey tell, is your suggestion, Zack?" Carmen asked, trying to sound off-hand. Fail. I could hear how excited she was.

"Ivy left the agency to find you. It's always been about you, Carmen. She didn't, however, leave her watch behind. If you're interested in broadcasting to her watch, I'm sure I could slip into ACME headquarters and enable her comm channel." I flashed the raven tressed woman a diabolically evil smirk which she quickly returned.

"I haven't given you the credit you deserve, Zack." It pleased me to hear her admit it, although it really shouldn't. "You're much brighter than I originally imagined. Perhaps you would've been as challenging as your sister if you hadn't come here today. Unfortunately, you've used your one chance. A pity really."

If it were possible, I'm sure my smirk widened. "Well, you said we had one chance to CAPTURE you. As I obviously haven't tried to do so I haven't used it up yet. Don't worry Carmen, when I do come for you, I won't waste my chance."

"We'll see about that, detective." At her words, a boom could be heard and the building shook. I assumed the explosion was just for a distraction because simultaneously, the twelve henchmen had dropped the six now unfurled fake-tapestries down the holes. They probably did so in front of the originals to keep their theft a secret as they quickly pulled the famous artworks from their resting place. The real tapestries were quickly stored in the cylinders and marched through the opening from which the henchmen had entered. Carmen moved to the space herself. "See you later, Zack. Maybe."

I smiled at the woman. "Say hello to Ivy for me. I'll open her channel as soon as I can. Chief can't find out so the discovery of your theft will be an excellent distraction for him."

Her red trench coat swished out of view and I swear I head a thank you in return but it could have been my imagination.

Now, back to work, quickly. I C5'd straight to ACME and went over to the mainframe computer. Beginning with some random searches about arms and ladies and such, I mentioned to Chief who was burbling the whole time about how I wasn't convinced we had the clue right. It took over an hour but thankfully, Chief disappeared mid-sentence and I assumed he was talking to the detectives in France about the switch that must have only just been discovered. Took them long enough. I quickly enabled Ivy's comm frequency and only just managed to return to my previous searches when the floating head reappeared.

"Zack, you were right and Carmen Sandiego did hit the Cluny Museum."

"Really?" I asked and I hoped it was believable.

"Yes, somehow Carmen replaced the real tapestries with fake ones which had Lady Diana's coat of arms instead of the original ones in it." Chief showed a comparison of the two tapestries on the screen for me.

"What a surprise!" a gawked, hoping I wasn't overselling this. Bleagh, I probably was. Since the theft had now occurred, I made my excuses and took the C5 express to my house.

I plonked down at my desk once more pleased with my progress so far. Not only did I find Carmen Sandiego but I was able to trick her into getting Ivy involved and made sure my sister would not be taken advantage of if something happens during a moment of self-discovery. Have I mentioned how awesome I am lately?

I took another slip of paper and wrote _The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries_ and pinned it on my noticeboard. This leaves me forty-one days to get everything sorted.

Several days later, I was awoken from slumber by my damn watch. In many ways, I couldn't wait to leave the agency. The luxury of sleeping in would have to wait. I tapped a button and a holographic image appeared in front of me which I worked out almost immediately. Was it just me or are Carmen's clues starting to become easier? This one would be the most prolific and the biggest theft so far. Since I wasn't really sure about Carmen's system yet I grouped everything she had stolen so far by country. Currently, the list on my noticeboard looked like this.

**The Theft of a Lifetime**

Canada

A row of seats from a Boeing 737-200 Pacific Western Airlines plane - Alberta Aviation Museum - Edmonton, Alberta

Czech Republic

Pablo Picasso's 1907 Self Portrait - National Gallery - Prague

France

The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries - The Cluny Museum - Paris

United Kingdom

A lynx statue - Cardiff Castle - Cardiff, Wales

Heart (A painting by Norman Ackroyd) - Tate Britain - London, England

United States

A B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber - Whiteman Air Force Base - Knob Noster, Missouri

Vatican City

The Vatican chimney - The Vatican - Vatican City

I was just about to roll over and fall asleep (although it was definitely time I should be awake) when my watch beeped again. Two heads appeared and I couldn't help but smile. "Hey guys!" I chirped gruffly since I hadn't even cleared my throat yet.

"Look who's lazy today, Mando," noted Tatiana with a smile.

I sat up and shrugged. Turning around to lean against the wall, I made myself comfy and asked, "Mando?"

My princess actually blushed and I thought she looked disgustingly happy. "We've started dating," she gushed excitedly.

"Good for you!" I said with a genuine smile. "Now I need deets!"

"It was me. I asked the lovely Tatty out," smiled Armando, despite his recent girlfriend slugging him in the arm. This caused my grin to widen for two reasons. One - Armando must have finally relocated his testicles. Two - Apparently I am still the only one allowed to use the nickname I gifted her.

"Well, it's about time, Armando. You've only been in love with her for what, two years now?" I teased. Armando blushed like crazy while Tatty looked at him in surprise.

"Really?" she asked. Her eyes open and pleading for an answer.

"Yeah," the gaucho said. His embarrassment evident yet I could tell her reaction pleased him. Like I said before, disgustingly happy. Emphasis on disgusting. Ugh.

"So, besides the good news, what's up?" I asked.

Tatty frowned. "It's this new clue. We think we've got most of it but the third part has us confused."

I giggled. I couldn't help it. Out of the four parts to the clue, this was by far the easiest. When Armando asked me what was so funny, I told them that too. "So, what's the history of the teddy bear?" I asked them but both drew a blank. With a sigh and small shake of my head, I told them the story I heard years ago with Carmen's Wizard of Oz shenanigan about Theodore Roosevelt and how he refused to kill a bear cub, thus earning the plushy toys the name. I saw Armando's eyes light up and I knew the rest of the clue had fallen into place. He quickly signed off and unfortunately, I was far too awake to go back to sleep. I also felt a small pang. There goes another two of my friends who have found each other and who did I have? No one. Dammit.

As I was eating breakfast I got the unpleasant delight of talking to Ayako who despite her better judgement, called asking about the fourth part of the latest clue. Apparently Lee had already tried to capture Carmen at Prague but she eluded him. The pair were still working together but now they only had one shot left. It made me appreciate my perilous position. One mistake will cost me the game. I refocussed my attention on Ayako as she haltingly talked to me. English wasn't her strong point. When I asked about why Lee didn't just call me himself, she told me that Carmen had somehow locked him out of ACME altogether. Lee tried using his electronic know-how to correct this but to no avail. Grudgingly, my respect for Carmen grew. There are very few people better at computers than me. Lee is one of them and if he can't crack her code, that's really saying something.

Realising that this conversation was already tedious, I explained how the clue went as quickly as possible. "So, Ayako, the proverb _Honesty is the best policy_ has nothing to do with policies like you were thinking. The key word is the first. Honesty. Honest Abe was of course Abraham Lincoln who apparently never told a lie. I don't know if I believe that for myself but that's how the story goes."

"Oh, so that would mean..." Ayako let her words trail off as her brain sped up. The Japanese girl must have remembered she was still on the communicator to me because she grimaced and thanked me. Hell, that must have got up her nose! Oh yeah! She left to talk to Lee about the answer I'd given her and I turned my thoughts back to my food. Unfortunately my cereal was now officially soggy. Damn I hate that!

I was half-way through brushing my teeth when I was contacted by Waheed Ullah. The Afghan still donned a turban and seemed inhumanly cheerful all of the time. How he got the energy to do that was beyond me. "I've worked out the last three parts of the clue, Zack and I'm pretty sure I know what she's after but..."

"You just want to make sure the first part adds correctly into your equation?" I supplied after I had spat out the toothpaste in my mouth.

Waheed Ullah nodded and I gave him a smile.

"Well," I began, "That bottle like structure was built in 1827. Although it is lesser known than the famous one in the National Mall of Washington DC, this structure was the first Washington Monument. It's located in Washington County, Maryland and was obviously built for..."

"George Washington," interjected Waheed Ullah. "Thanks," grinned the Afghan as he quit the call.

The next time I was interrupted was when I was watching TV. It was Amati and he was stuck on part number two. At least each call had been about a different part. If I had to tell that teddy bear story all day I would have impaled myself on a fork and bled to death by now. Well, not really but I'd at least be considering it.

"At least you're stuck on the difficult one, not like the others," I groused a little.

"Others?" asked Amati.

"Yeah. Tatiana and Armando called about part three, Ayako about part four, Waheed Ullah part one and now you about part two. Enough about that though, so the clue has a picture of a head, a letter V and a heart together in quotation marks. In 1786 a famous love letter was penned for a woman called Maria Cosway. It was over four thousand words long. The V in the clue stands for verses and the quotation marks indicate something spoken. This letter was later named the _Dialogue of The Head vs. The Heart_ and was written by Thomas Jefferson." I spoke it out in a bit of a rush because I was really into the basketball match I'd been watching before. Go the Warriors! I hope he understood it all.

The African archaeologist must have because he disappeared soon after.

I did get to enjoy the rest of the match and we easily beat the Kings (hell effing yeah!)

It was just my luck that I didn't hear the C5 corridor go off because I was in the shower. Krow and I both got the surprise of our lives as I walked out of the bathroom butt naked to find him lounging on my bed. His eyes widened in shock as he gazed further south than I would have liked. Luckily I was still holding my towel and it was quickly placed around my waist, keeping my unexpected exhibitionism (in the own damn home!) to a minimum. See what I mean about a lack of privacy?

"I-I'm s-so sorry, Zack!" squeaked the Norwegian who rolled over on the bed to look interestedly at my wall while I quickly slipped on some clothes. I would have been amused at his girlish tone if I hadn't just been caught naked.

"Alright, I'm covered up," I announced, allowing Krow to turn back around. The Norwegian was a brilliant shade of red which matched my own blush. At least I wasn't the only one who was embarrassed.

"I-I'm sorry for the intrusion. You s-said I could swing by if I needed a bit of help. I didn't think I might be, er, interrupting you." If the Earth could swallow up people, I had a feeling Krow would have been begging it to do so immediately.

I gave him a smile. "That's cool, you just caught me at an, inconvenient time."

The Norwegian sent me a smirk. "Well I suppose I could have been even more untimely and caught you doing something even more embarrassing."

My mouth fell open. Did he... Did he just laugh this off and make a wanking joke? Well, I suppose that would have been much more awful. I snorted in amusement which garnered a raised eyebrow from Krow. "I'd be careful about what you say. It's probably my turn to surprise you unexpectedly and I might get the free peep show."

Krow's blush returned with a vengeance much to my amusement. Instead of saying something, he rose to his feet and sat at my extra-special desk. He's lucky I still feel off-kilter or I would have either bolted there first or belted him over the head for his audacity. He started flipping through the folder on my desk where I was meticulously notating each crime with written and pictorial references. "This is really well written," noted Krow with interest and I felt a swell of pride at his words making me feel all warm and fuzzy.

"Thanks," I said. "I'm going to work out what she's up to if it's the last thing I ever do."

Krow smiled, "I think that's what most of our colleagues are also saying. You should have heard what Aileen was screeched when she was left out of the loop after the very first theft."

"Well, what was it?" I asked with barely concealed glee.

"It's not for young delicate ears," quipped Krow.

I pouted. "I'm not young or delicate, Krow."

"Yes you are. You're what, sixteen?"

"SEVENTEEN!" I roared with indignation.

"Well, I'm twenty-two which means I'm much older and wiser than you, so if I say you're too delicate, you are."

I smirked at the Norwegian. "And yet you've come here looking for my help. How very wise of you."

This time it was Krow who snorted. "At least you can admit that I'm wiser than you, Zack."

"I said you were wise, Krow but I never said you were wiser than me." For some reason I was enjoying our banter. We'd never really had much of a chance to do so before and I felt a little bad about choosing to do this solo a couple of days ago.

"Touché," noted Krow. "I get that this has something to do with the presidents from your country but I have no idea how it all fits together.

I grabbed my laptop out of it's case and booted it up. After I logged in, I placed it on my desk in front of the already seated Norwegian. "Do an image search on Google with the four president's names." Naturally, when Krow typed in Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln, the page filled with pictures of Mount Rushmore. While he was saying how stupid he felt I remembered he said 'presidents from your country' and I thought back to my interrupters. They were all foreigners. The clue was easy for me because I know a lot about my country's history just like they do about theirs. I no longer thought they were a bit stupid (except for Ayako because she's a bitch) but geologically disadvantaged.

"Don't worry about it Krow, I wouldn't know a damn thing about the kings or presidents or whatever of Norway."

The man chuckled. "It's Kings but we also have a Prime Minister too."

"See," I smirked, "I told you I knew nothing about Norway, except that you live there and some of your words have funny letters in them."

Krow rolled his eyes and started typing a sentence into the search bar. Hei, jeg er Krossbyr og jeg er fra Norge_._ "I don't see any funny letters at all. Read it," he commanded.

"Hei, jeg er Krossbyr og jeg er fra Norge," I read from the computer screen. Sure I know my accent must be horrible but I can say the words alright. The sentence translates as 'Hi, I'm Krossbyr and I'm from Norway.'

Blinking in surprise, the Norwegian looked at me. "You said my name right. No one ever says my name right. See you do know something about Norway."

"Your name is Krossbyr?" I asked. I could see why others would get it wrong. It looks like Kross-bir but actually sounds like Krows-bewr.

Krow nodded his head. "Yeah, some of the agents at ACME actually thought my name was Krow-spew. So I went with Krow," he shrugged.

My expression darkened. I hate it when people mispronounced things.

"Don't worry about it, Zack," encouraged Krow. "Anyway, I'm off to Mount Rushmore."

"Don't," I suggested. "The clue's too easy by Carmen's standards. It's as if she's begging to be caught and perhaps that's what she wants. To get everyone to attempt this particular heist. How would you catch her? She'll carry the four gigantic heads away in a helicarrier or something and how could you get to her then?"

Krow puzzled it out for a moment. "You make a lot of sense. I'll let this one go and see how the others fare tomorrow. Feel free to take your clothes off again if you want because I'm out of here." The smirk was back on his face and I waved him out of my room and into the C5 corridor.

I can't believe he saw me naked. I felt my blush return but at least no one was here to witness it. With the exception of a drunken escapade with Tatiana last year, no one's seen me naked for a very long time. Despite that, I'm glad he dropped by. I always thought the Norwegian ACME detective was always quite serious but our conversation proved otherwise. I certainly wouldn't be adverse to working with him, maybe when we both don't understand the clue. That would be fun. Okay so I suppose some interruptions can be alright.

Maybe I'll see him again before this case is over but in the meantime, I'd better turn my attention back on Carmen.


	3. Round Midnight & Of Krows and Puzzles

Hi.

Sorry this has taken so long. :-( Unfortunately, we had the show (like a fair for you Americans!) and my marching band was performing throughout so most of my time lately has been devoted to making sure we seren't sucktacular. We weren't and thus I found time to write. Here's a little karma for my recent reviewers!

**Lucky Avalon**: I hope this lives up to your expectations and you don't get too anxious, whether it's in a good or bad way!

**ellagames12**: My apologies, there's no Ivy/Carmen this chapter (I know - bad author!) but there will be some interaction with both in the next chapter I promise!

**aptasi**: Glad you're enjoying it so far. I figured, since this story was more adult based, the clues should be more difficult. Mind you, most of the clues in the TV show would be way too tricky for kids anyway... I have a soft spot for minor characters because you can do so much with them! Maybe I can explore that in a different fic after I've had my way with this one!

Hope the next installment is alright. BTW - my translations come from the internet. I'm no language guru so apologies if it's wrong.

Cheers, Jace.

* * *

_Chapter Three - 'Round Midnight & Of Krows and Puzzles_

Apparently, fifty-four ACME agents were not enough to capture the elusive criminal called Carmen Sandiego who made her escape with Mount Rushmore a couple of days ago. It was in a chinook which I'd sort of anticipated and she left the other agents far behind. They didn't seem to grasp how clever Carmen was. Did they honestly think she'd roll up in a tank, easy prey for the ACME detective agency? Seriously, some of my colleagues are just stupid. The thought saddens me but unfortunately it's true.

I almost C5'd over to Norway to gloat at Krow when I wondered what the hell I was doing. Was the fact that I finally escaped my sister made me crave human contact so badly that I was willing to travel halfway across the word to tell an agent that I was right and he was wrong? What the hell is up with that? I came to my senses and stayed at home, working on my leads from the comfort of my bedroom.

Carmen's taste in treasures were eclectic at best. What I found odd was that while she claimed there was no real reason for these items to be connected, some of them were items that weren't worth stealing at all. Like that first edition of the Dublin Review. The old newspaper held no real monetary value at all. In fact, it was only distinguishable as a Carmen crime due to the technology left behind at Alan McGregor's residence. It was rare for her to steal from a private collection unless the item was valuable. In this case, it was pretty much worthless. There must be some other reason for it's merit to Carmen. It's not like that stone memorial to Bonnie and Clyde that she stole in Gibsland, Louisiana which at least held historic value.

Today marked thirty-six days to go of Carmen's elaborate scheme, which means it's been almost a week since this escapade began. About half of ACME had already unsuccessfully tried to apprehend the thief and I was finding it inconvenient to connect with my friends. Lee was disconnected ages ago but now Josh, Waheed Ullah, Christie, Lili, Amati, Maria and Armando (or Mando as Tatty calls him now) are all lost to me. It was sort of like my mom had confiscated my contacts list in my phone and I only had a few emergency numbers at my disposal. In short - it sucked. I never realised how often I talked to the other detectives until I found myself unable to do so. My saving grace is Tatty. She's pretty much the only one I know who's still online that I'm really good friends with. Although I've rarely talked to her this week, at least I can still contact her in a pinch.

Anyway. This latest clue has been doing my head in. _Cross henchmen caretakers by windmills you mine at._ What the effing hell? I've been turning the words over in my head for the last hour and my brain feels like it's starting to melt out of my ears, I swear it! I actually think I need some help on this one. I was about to call out to the player before I realised I'm not sure who to go to. Usually, I'd head straight for Ivy but obviously that's not possible. My next port of call would be Josh or Armando but Carmen has disabled ACME's access to them. Then I'd go for Tatiana but she's probably working on this with Armando already, or they could be working on something else both of which would be extremely rude of me to interrupt. Not that Krow cared a couple of days ago...

Damn, why am I thinking about the Norwegian so much? Wait a minute, he's still active (from what I know) and did offer to help if I needed it. Maybe I should take him up on that offer? He seemed like the best option I had left. Of course I could go to Jasmine, Ketut, Marco or Michelle but I don't know. I just want to see Krow. What's up with that? I shrugged to myself and decided to head to Norway. Against my will I started to get a little excited. What if I did find him in a compromising position like he had joked?

I C5'd over and I could have smacked myself in the head. I couldn't see a goddam thing. It was three in the afternoon in San Francisco but in Lillehammer, the city where Krow lives, it's nine hours later making the time around midnight. My eyes finally started to adjust to my now darkened surroundings and I could make out the form of Krow tucked safely in his bed. He seemed to be under several layers of blankets which made a lot of sense it was freaking cold. I shivered a little on the spot as I tried to work out what to do. It would be super rude to wake him up but I do really need his help...

I was distracted from my thoughts by a yell and almost instantaneously found myself lying on the floor with a huge pain in my side and head. I could tell that Krow was shouting something in his native language but I was way too stunned to move or think. Just when I thought the pain had become manageable, light flooded my now adjusted eyes causing me to close them. So I just laid pitifully on the floor. Damn, this is so not good. I heard Krow's loud words abruptly stop, followed by a strangled, "Zack?"

"Yeah," I ground out as best I could. My jaw throbbed painfully. It must have been part of what hit the ground first. Fuck it hurt.

Within moments I found myself airborne and was placed gently onto his bed. "I'm sorry Zack, I thought you were a burglar or something."

I tried to give him a wry grin which I'm pretty certain came out as a grimace. "Don't be sorry, I was stupid," I somehow ground out of my aching mouth. "I forgot about the time difference. You should attack someone unexpected in your bedroom at this time of night."

Krow chuckled as he checked my face to make sure it was okay. His touch was warm and for the first time since I travelled to his place I managed to see him properly. His blonde mullet was quite dishevelled but really, considering the time, I'm sure bed hair is the least of his concerns. His ice blue eyes were still a little droopy but it was when I looked down that I unexpectedly held my breath. His expansive chest was on display and the Norwegian had way more muscles on him than I would have thought. He had a well defined six pack and a well defined, er, pretty much everything else. What caused me to smile (and subsequently my jaw to throb again) was his pyjamas pants. They were light blue flannelette with white cartoon penguins on them. Twenty-two and superior my ass! "Nice penguins!" I teased.

Krow couldn't hold back a sheepish grin. I saw the now semi-familiar sight of his blush again but I got to see it start in his cheeks and progress to his chest. It oddly pleased me that I could evoke such a response but I kept that little thought to myself. I slowly sat up (which caused my vision to blur) and moved back to lean against the wall. I heaved a few breaths and when the world had stopped spinning, I saw that Krow had donned a shirt and I felt a little something at the loss of seeing his chest, although I have no idea why.

"So what brings you to Norway at..." Krow let his sentence die off as he looked at his luminescent alarm clock before completing it, "...nine past midnight?" I raised an eyebrow at him, silently asking if was senile. He sighed in return. "So what has the dreaded Carmen Sandiego done this time?" he inquired with a bored tone.

This time I scowled at him, partly at his apathy about Carmen but mostly at myself for busting in unannounced when Krow would obviously prefer to be asleep. "I just can't work out her latest clue and it's driving me mental."

"You mean you weren't already clinically insane?" ribbed Krow.

My scowl lightened. If he was starting to crack jokes, he couldn't be too angry at me, right? "Well, more mental than usual."

"So what's her clue?" asked the Norwegian as he plonked on the bed next to me, scooting up against the wall. I pressed a couple of buttons on my watch and the latest hologram sent by Carmen hovered in front of us.

"Cross henchmen caretakers by windmills you mine at," read Krow aloud, his prominent eyebrows furrowed in thought. I stared at the words myself still trying to make heads or tails of it without any success. Again. Gah, this one would be the death of me.

Without warning, Krow sprang to his feet and made his way across the room. He located and picked up a couple of notepads and pencils from his desk. On his way back to the bed, he stopped and tilted his head as he looked at me. "The average temperature in Lillehammer during January is minus nine degrees Celsius. That's fifteen point eight degrees Fahrenheit for you Americans. Despite my heating system, you must be freezing, Zack." Now that he mentioned it, I was still feeling cold. Despite how good my jacket is it's not really equipped for such glacial weather. It's more of an afternoon in the park kind of coat.

"Yeah," I agreed sheepishly as I scratched the back of my head in slight embarrassment.

Krow dropped the writing implements and paper on his bedside table and began rummaging through his dresser. He extracted a warm red hoodie from within which was thrust immediately in my direction. I stripped off my worn green jacket and donned the red hoodie. It was pure bliss. I felt like I was sinking into a hot bath. It was so soft and comfortably warm.

Krow grabbed my jacket and started to fold it up before laying it gently on his desk. "You have a C in your name, don't you Zack?" he asked.

"Yes, I do," I replied as I snuggled deeply in the hoodie. How did I survive outside of this garment? I must have been completely numb.

"You should really get someone to fix this then," said Krow as he gestured at my jacket.

"Huh?" I asked. Nothing was wrong with it.

"It says Z A K, they forgot the C."

I giggled in response. When my chuckling (which had caused Krow to glare at me) had subsided I explained it to him. "My dad bought me that jacket years ago and it was huge because he said I'd grow into it. I pretty much have now, I suppose. It had my initials embroidered on it and I made the same mistake myself. I thought he'd misspelled it too. My full name is Zackary Arthur Knight which is why they're all capitals and why it's missing the C. Ivy called me stupid but it's not like she knows everything either."

Krow made his way back but he must have noticed I was still shivering a little because he flipped up the blankets on his bed and covered the pair of us in them before handing me one of the notepads and pencils. It felt nice to be so warm but it felt even better to be sitting so close to him too. I think frostbite might have taken over my brain.

"So I was thinking," began Krow as he wrote the clue out at the top of his pad. "If this was actually a sentence (which it obviously isn't since you don't mine with windmills) this word would be wrong. It would be missing a U, wouldn't it?" I saw that he had circled the word **by** and I agreed. If someone was buying something, it would be **B-U-Y**. "That means that the actual letters themselves are important exactly how they are."

It was if a light bulb had switched on above my head. "Or maybe that word in particular is more important than the others."

"What do you mean?" asked Krow.

"It could be a **by** like Alice in Wonderland **by** Lewis Carroll..." I started.

"...so maybe if the letters are more important than the words, we're dealing with some anagrams," finished Krow excitedly.

"Anna-whats?" I asked.

The twenty-two year old smiled at me. "An anagram is a word where the letters can be mixed up to create another one. Like the word torso." He wrote the word on his pad before drawing five arrows and rewriting the letters in a new order to spell the word roost.

"Oh, I get it now. So you think these letters rearrange to spell out what Carmen is after. That probably explains why the sentence itself makes very little sense." I was surprised that the clue was so different from all the others Ivy and I had solved over the years. There was no 'don't get all mixed up, Zack,' to go with it so it had never occurred to me in the first place. Her clues were getting more obscure as the chase continued.

"I think the words after **by** will be the easiest to work out since they should spell out a name. Let's start with them," Krow suggested.

"Sure," I agreed as I grabbed the other notepad and wrote **windmills you mine at** on it. Underneath I started writing names that I could find in there. Monet, Andy, Newton, Edwin, Will, Samuel and Daniel found themselves quickly beneath the sentence. This was going to be a lot more difficult than I'd originally thought. What stood out the most to me was the word Andy. Andrew couldn't be made since there were no R's in the second half of the clue. I had a feeling that a nickname would be an unlikely contender. Which meant I had no names with a Y in it. "Hey Krow?"

"Yeah Zack?" he answered.

"Do you have any names with a Y in it yet?" I asked.

The Norwegian frowned at his page. "Erm... No."

"I think that's the key. We need a name with a Y." I started looking at the letters but still drew a blank.

"Sidney!" squeaked Krow with excitement. "It's the only one I can think of."

I wrote down Sidney and rewrote the remaining letters. **W-N-M-I-L-L-O-U-M-I-A-T**. I crossed out the names I had that no longer fitted the remaining letters and was left with only Will. Wait if this was someone's real name it would have to be the full name, William which worked! "I think another name is William." This only left **N-O-U-M **and **T**.

Krow said, "The only thing I can make out of the last few letters is the word mount."

"Maybe we should talk to Chief?" I suggested.

As if my question had conjured the bobbling head of our supervisor, Chief blared to life and hovered at the edge of the bed near our feet. "Greetings Gumshoes! Why are you both in bed?"

"It's midnight," stated Krow without humour.

"Oh, well there you have it. Anyway, Carmen's got the agency in a tizzy and none of the agents are working together. I've tried everything..."

I cut the chief off, "Yeah, I totally knew this was going to happen."

"What!" shrieked Chief and Krow in horror.

"Why else would she give the agent who catches her such a big prize? She wants the agency to melt down to make her life easier." I shrugged. I knew this was going to happen from day one.

"That..." began Krow, "actually makes a lot of sense."

"Anyway Chief, while you're here, cross-check the words William and Mount," I demanded. I wasn't going to waste my time waiting for others to digest knowledge that I already knew and yes, I know that sounds very up myself but it's oh so very true.

The Chief bounced around his pink screen before falling onto the icy land of Antarctica. "Mount William is a prominent snow-covered mountain on Anvers Island in the Palmer Archipelago. It was named for King William IV, the ruler of the United Kingdom by John Biscoe when he discovered it in 1832."

"Wait chief," I piped up, "That's not it..."

The chief cut me off and bounced from the icy mountain to the island continent of Australia. "There's a Mount William also known as Mount Duwil which is located in the Grampians National Park approximately two hundred and fifty kilometres west of Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria in Australia. Which is another of the many places on the Earth named after Queen Victoria like Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River (as you might remember Zack) Port Victoria, the Capital city of Seychelles and Lake Victoria, the Largest lake in Africa."

I was about to butt in again because we were looking for a person not a mountain but Krow jumped in first.

"Wait, isn't Sydney the capital of Australia? So this whatever might be on Mount William, Sydney?"

I didn't want to completely squash his theory but it was totally barking up the wrong tree. "Um, not really Krow. Sydney has two Y's in it and Sydney isn't the capital of Australia, although it did host the Olympics in the year 2000."

"That's right again Zacky boy. In 1908, the settlers of Australia were disputing which of their two largest cities, Melbourne or Sydney should become the nation's capital." The map zoomed from the mountain to highlight the two cities. Chief floated to the top corner of the screen to continue his history lesson. "After a lengthy debate where a decision couldn't be reached, the people built a new city halfway between the two and named it Canberra. This was derived from the word Kambera, which meant 'meeting place' in the Ngunnawal Language of the local Ngabri tribe of the Native Australians. Otherwise known as Aboriginals."

"As interesting as that is Chief, we're not looking for an actual mountain but a person." I tried not to flinch at the disappointed look the chief gave me. He so likes to show off. All the damn time. "So cross check people with the names Mount, Sidney and William."

"In that case, I have some good news for you, Zack. William Sidney Mount is an American painter who lived from 1807 to 1868."

"Carmen must be after one of his paintings then," I squealed. Krow had been right, this clue was all about anagrams. "What are the titles of his paintings?"

A long list appeared on the screen and I groaned. "This is going to take forever!" I whined.

"Not exactly," Krow disagreed as he pulled his pad toward himself. "Chief, delete every title without the letters **C-R-O** and two **S**'sin it."

The chief took a moment to compute before spitting out a much smaller list which enlarged and floated before our eyes, with the five letters in each title highlighted in red.

1. School b**o**y**s** quar**r**elling

2.** C**hrist **r**ai**s**ing the daughter **o**f Jairu**s**

3. F**r**uit pie**c**e: Apple**s** **o**n tin cup**s**

4. L**o**ng I**s**land farme**r** hu**s**king **c**orn

5. A**r**tist **s**ket**c**hing at **S**tony Br**o**ok, New York

6. C**r**ane ne**c**k acr**o**s**s** the mar**s**h

7. Po**r**trait **o**f William Vi**c**kham Mill**s S**mith

8. Kit**c**hen in the Mount Hou**s**e, **S**t**o**ny B**r**ook

9. Port**r**ait **o**f Ruth Fran**c**i**s S**eabury

It only took me a few moments to work out which painting Carmen Sandiego was after but I could just hear Krow muttering his way through it in much the same way I had. "**Cross henchmen caretakers**. There are no Q's, J's, F's, L's or Y's so there go the first five. Seven and nine also have F's in the word of and eight has a Y which leaves number six."

We needed to check that we'd reached the correct conclusion. "Chief, bring up number six. Delete the letters when I say them, alright? **C-R-O-S-S-H-E-N-C-H-M-E-N-C-A-R-E-T-A-K-E-R**..." I looked up to see the lone S on the screen. Damn we're good! "**S**!" I high fived Krow and gave him a quick hug. "Now I can get some sleep!" I announced cheerfully.

"WHAT!" yelled the chief causing my head to throb. Maybe I hadn't completely recovered from Krow's attack yet.

"I'm not going to waste my one shot at catching her yet," I shrugged. "However, where is that painting on display?"

"Normally that one is housed at the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages but it's currently at a special exhibition of nineteenth century artworks at the Tate Museum in London. Now if you're not going to catch Carmen, I'm off to help a detective who will," huffed Chief before zapping himself out of existence.

There was a silence left after his abrupt disappearance.

"You really got up his nose," Krow said with a crooked grin.

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's just one of those things that I'm really good at."

"So why aren't you going to London to chase Carmen anyway?" quizzed the Norwegian.

I frowned. "I still haven't worked out what she's up to yet. Sure I could run after her and miss her now, or I can sleuth my way to one of the places she won't be expecting a detective to turn up at and finally nab her." I scratched my head. Something was off and I couldn't work it out. "Hey, where's your research on this case, Krow?"

Krow flung the covers of the bed back and rose to his feet with me in close pursuit. He grabbed a folder from a desk drawer and handed it to me. The notes were clear and concise but I found them a little hard to read since they were in Bokmål, one of the written forms of the Norwegian language. What surprised me was that this actually helped me find the inconsistency much quicker than if I'd been using my own notes. "Look!" I pointed at the seventh item Carmen had stolen.

Peering over my shoulder, Krow gasped. "Why would Carmen steal from the Tate Museum in London twice? Why didn't she just take both paintings at once?" he asked.

"Well it would certainly mess up her two thefts a day thing she has going for her." Carmen was once again getting to me. I need to work out this damn puzzle before it kills me.

"Not if she'd taken only them in one day."

"But she didn't because later that day she stole Mount Rushmore," I growled. This was pure frustration. "It must mean... she's stealing these things in a particular order. That has to be it. There's some crazy method to her thefts. Not only are some of the items practically worthless but she's taking them in a specific order. Now, all we have to do is work out why these items have been stolen in this particular sequence and we can nab the crook whenever we like."

"We?" questioned the Norwegian with an odd look on his face. It was something like surprise, confusion, joy and contempt all rolled into one. "I thought you were flying solo for this caper."

I crossed my arms and huffed, "I was but I'm so bored with just myself. Don't tell Ivy but I sort of kind of miss her."

I noticed Krow's face darkening. "So I'm just a stand in for your sister."

"No, that's not what I..." I started but Krow cut me off.

"There is no we, Zackary. You wanted to try this on your own? You got it. I think it's time you let me get some sleep because some of us have more than one job and I have to be up in a few hours. Good night, I'm sure you can C5 yourself out."

I felt a pang in my chest and in all honesty, I don't know why. It's probably because I want people to like me. I'm a people person and when people don't like me, I feel upset but this was a little worse than usual. I was about to go home when I realised I was still wearing his hoodie. "Uh, do you want we to leave this here or take it with me, wash it and return it later?" I gestured at the garment.

There was a distinct silence as Krow turned away and started to take off his shirt. "Do whatever you think is right," answered the Norwegian without even looking my direction as he made his way to his bed. It wasn't until he settled down that he looked back at me.

I was unaware I was pouting at the dismissal until I saw his expression lighten a fraction. When I did notice, I quickly wiped it from my face. "Okay then," I all but whispered. He really pulled the rug out from under me this time. The whole experience had been quite surreal. I was about to C5 out of there but realised the lights were still on. I switched them off and called the player to get me out. "Night," I whispered as I was sucked into the vortex of light blue light.

I was gracelessly plonked on the floor next to my bed where I laid for a few moments out of sheer exhaustion. Why me? Why did I always have to put my foot in my mouth and piss off pretty much everyone?

Hauling myself to my feet, I walked over to my desk and realised I needed to do some rearranging on my noticeboard. Thus far I had been cataloguing Carmen's thefts by location. Now that I think the order in which she's been stealing them is important, I needed to change it. I spent about an hour rewriting and altering my board until it was set out in a way that I liked. Now my board was as follows.

**The Theft of a Lifetime**

#1 - The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries - The Cluny Museum - Paris, France

#2 - A B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber - Whiteman Air Force Base - Knob Noster, Missouri, USA

#3 - A lynx statue - Cardiff Castle - Cardiff, Wales, UK

#4 - Pablo Picasso's 1907 Self Portrait - National Gallery - Prague, Czech Republic

#5 - A row of seats from a Boeing 737-200 Pacific Western Airlines plane - Alberta Aviation Museum - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

#6 - The Vatican chimney - The Vatican - Vatican City, The Vatican

#7 - Heart (A painting by Norman Ackroyd) - Tate Britain - London, England, UK

#8 - Mount Rushmore National Memorial - Mount Rushmore - near Keystone, South Dakota, USA

#9 - One of the three Blue Trains of Josip Broz Tito - Railway Museum - Belgrade, Serbia

#10 - A ninth century Qur'an - Reza Abbasi Museum - Tehran, Iran

#11 - The Bonnie and Clyde stone memorial - Rural Gibsland - Gibsland, Louisiana, USA

#12 - "Old Church" Oosterbeek Vicarage - "Old Church" - Oosterbeek, The Netherlands

#13 - An edition of the original Dublin Review, Volume One - Private Residence - Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

#14 - Crane Neck Across the Marsh by William Sidney Mount - Tate Britain - London, England, UK

It was certainly starting to fill up. Hopefully I could work out Carmen's strategy soon, otherwise I might just run out of room on my board. It was only when I completed my board that I realised how hot I was. I'd forgotten about the hoodie completely and, well, San Francisco is a warmer place. I removed it and tossed it aside onto my bed before taking a quick shower. Just standing under the spray caused me to think of the little show I accidentally put on a couple of days ago, causing me to smile. Of course, that just made me think about how I was quickly ejected when he thought I meant he was a substitute for Ivy.

That idiot. All I was trying to say was that I was lonely and he was one of the few people that could tolerate me. Of course there's no one I would EVER admit to being lonely to. Except maybe Carmen. For some reason I feel like I can tell her anything and she wouldn't judge me for it. Ivy's the complete opposite. Despite the fact that we've worked together for a few years, anything I tell her she uses against me. Is that really what sisters are for? I know she shook up my soda when I was trying to ask out Tatiana. Just as she spent that whole mission trying to dissuade my Russian Princess from liking me.

Yes, I found out about that when I was overhauling the ACME mainframe computer. I was checking some old video files to make sure my programming hadn't corrupted the archives when low and behold, I saw Ivy telling the girl I once had a huge crush on that I was desperate. Despite how right she was, it hurt. A lot. Of course I never let on that what she said really got to me but that was when I started contributing less. Whenever there was a crime, I'd only help out when Ivy, the Mistress of All Knowledge would get totally stuck. I suppose I sort of helped push Ivy into taking on Carmen by herself but at the end of the day, she decimated my steadfast trust in her. There's no way she could earn it all back.

I hopped out of the shower and dried myself off, this time without an audience and quickly dressed in my pyjamas. It was almost seven o'clock now and I wouldn't be going anywhere so why dress up? My eyes fell on the hoodie Krow had lent me and I gingerly picked it up. The red material looked faded like it had gotten a lot of use. In fact, it looked a lot like my jacket. As if had been well worn for years. Why had the Norwegian given me an object he probably wore all the time instead of something else from his closet? It was only now that I noticed there was a slogan in gold splashed on the back. SØT OG KOSETE. It made me smile. It roughly translates to cute and cuddly. I hugged the garment to my chest, vaguely wishing it was a certain blonde someone and I finally started to realise why I felt a little differently about him.


	4. An Inconvenient Truth & Ivy in Wonder

Hiya!

Another chapter complete and this one's a little different to the others. Hopefully in a good way.

Without further ado, here's a little karma for my recent reviewers!

**aptasi**: Thanks for the props. To me, the more detail rich a story is, the more real it seems. My major problem is a tendency to make things too detailed and then I wonder why I'm so lost and confused. I call it Tolkien Syndrome. I still find it amazing that he could describe walking across a path over three pages.

**green lion**: I have a soft spot for my boys and I'm glad you find them sweet. I've finally introduced a couple of OC's so hopefully you don't mind them too much.

Chapter four is a go! Read, drink and be merry!

Cheers, Jace.

* * *

_Chapter Four - An Inconvenient Truth & Ivy in Wonderland_

As always, Carmen Sandiego had been up to her usual tricks. It seems her boldness had also increased. The treasures she had taken in the last three days were much more prolific than nearly everything else from before. The day after my argument with Krow, she pilfered the entire Audley End House from Essex County and took the Apollo 13 command module in Kansas. Following that day, she made off with a Statue of Anubis from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo and Da Vinci's well-known mural in Milan, The Last Supper.

Then she went and ruined it all. This morning, she returned to Essex (and why was she spending so much time in the UK? Seriously?) and acquired the most un-Carmen-like item I've ever heard of. Elvis's Pink Cadillac was one thing but taking a Lister D Stationary Engine from the Farm Machine Preservation Society's Annual Vintage Rally was, well, totally fucked up. Of all her thefts so far, this one took the cake in uselessness. Even more so than that stupid newspaper. I was so intrigued by the bizarreness of this one that I actually C5'd to the scene of the crime to check it out personally.

I've never really seen a grown man cry before but that's what Dale Drew was doing. His meaty hands kept wiping away his tears but made little difference since they kept on falling and his blond flyaway hair looked like it had suffered from continuous harassment also. I hope that I concealed my disgust as I questioned him about why a master criminal would want to steal his outdated machine. It wasn't really worth much despite it being rare. There were only six of this particular model in existence which was created to be used in conjunction with a compressor. It had a horsepower of two point five at one thousand, one hundred and fifty revolutions per minute.

Dale started to finally regain his wits and instead of crying, he rhapsodised about his beautiful marvel. Apparently he had spent over four years restoring it from the charred wreck of a mess it used to be. Yes, he had pictures of what it had started out as and no, I don't want to tell you about it. So many freaking photos! GAH! I was politely listening to his detailed (and I mean extremely comprehensive) history when I was saved by the most unlikely of people.

"So I left the flywheel in the barrel of acid for a couple of nights to remove the worst of the rust..." rambled Dale without noticing my complete lack of interest. I was being quite obvious about it too when a screech cut him off and saved me from ripping off an 'it's an EXHAUST SILENCER not a MUFFLER!' from one of his other engines with my bare hands and repeatedly bashing him in the head with it.

"Excuse me, Sir, we just received a hot tip on where Carmen Sandiego is but we have to leave immediately. Thank you for the information you provided my colleague here but we've got to go. Player C5 us to San Francisco, Corner of Washington and Larkin." In a flash of blue light, I was lifted from the ground and taken away from the most boring man on the planet. I almost cried with relief!

When we were deposited on the sidewalk (and boy was I excited that we weren't dumped on the street in front of the traffic) I quickly turned around and glomped over my saviour. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" I quickly reeled off as I felt my hug returned.

"No problem, Little Bro," and if it were possible, I think I melted a little further into her embrace. Since we started to work together, this was the longest time we'd spent apart. Sure it's only been nine whole days but when you've been seeing someone pretty every single day of your life, it seems like forever. At least I had the presence of mind not to cry.

Without a word, we separated and started to walk toward the yellow building in front of us. I could have kissed her. The whole lead on Carmen thing was just an excuse to save me from Captain Boring and I immediately recognised the building ahead as the complex where our Aunt Ellen lives. I felt a bit bad that I hadn't seen her for a few months even though we only live a couple suburbs over but my relief far outweighed my guilt.

Ivy pulled a key out from her pocket and let us into flat number sixty-six. I could hear pots clanging in the kitchen and surmised it was Ellen since I doubted Luce would be the culprit and speak of the devil. A black cat padded into the room and leapt immediately into my arms. Aunt Ellen first got him when he wandered in on his own from the street and made himself at home. She tried to get him to leave but he refused. That was when she started calling him the Devil Cat of Doom which she changed to Lucifer after he eventually wormed his way into her heart. The Bombay-bred cat started purring as I scratched him behind his ears.

"Hey Ives," floated Aunt Ellen's voice from the kitchen, "I've started the pasta and the sauce will be ready soon. Are you off after Carmen again or are you going to eat with your old aunty for a change? If you're going globetrotting, lemme know so I can put yours in the fridge."

"You're not old," argued Ivy, "and I'm not alone, either. Look what Lucifer dragged in." I didn't protest as Ivy pushed me to the doorway and I got a look at my father's sister. Despite her stirring the pot, Ellen was looking my way and a broad grin stretched over her face. She too possessed our trademarked Knight family red hair (which thankfully was a female thing in our family, I like being blond) which was rather frizzy. Black rimmed glasses were perched on her nose, framing her green eyes. There were few wrinkles on her since she was nine years younger than my father. Grams and Pops were very surprised when she fell pregnant again and decided to chance having the baby although her doctors recommended otherwise. Apparently the birth was difficult but at the end of the day, Ellen was healthy and my grandparents couldn't ask for anything more.

Ellen's taste in fashion is interesting to say the very least. Her denim jeans are patched over in places and she was sporting a red tartan singlet. She wore no jewellery except her nose ring and there was a tattoo of a shark fin on her left bicep. Cool, that must be new or she's had it for a while and covered it. Dad probably threatened her about being respectable in front of his children again. I don't know why. Ellen's not going to change who she is because her older brother said so.

Said Aunt squealed in delight, dropped the ladle into the saucepan and launched herself at me. Lucifer (who had probably been conditioned to sense an impending attack from his early days in the household) had the intelligence to flee from my arms and only I was crushed in Ellen's embrace. "Look at you!" she burbled as she stepped back and critically eyed me. "You're so tall now and I swear your hair's longer than I've ever seen it." It had grown out a little but not really that much but there was no way that I was going to argue with her about it. Why ruin the mood?

"Hey Aunt Ellen," I said with a sunny smile.

"You sound so manly!" she squealed with delight to my absolute mortification. I didn't dare chance a glance at Ivy, I could already tell she'd be smirking at me. A frown descended on Ellen's face. "Anyway, what is it with the two of you and this Aunt Ellen shit? My name is Ellen. If I change it to Aunt Ellen, I'll let you know. I bet this is all Arthur's fault. When I get my hands on your father I'll..." she trailed off as her brain changed tracks mid-sentence. "Are you moving in too? 'Cause there's hardly any room left with Ives and I don't want to turn you away but I couldn't pos..."

I cut her off. "I'm just visiting, Au... I mean Ellen. Ivy saved from a slow, painful death and whisked me away back here."

Ellen looked relieved that I wasn't staying yet I could also tell she was disappointed too. "She tends to run around trying to save everyone at once without a thought for herself. One day she's either going to drop dead from exhaustion or she's going to end up an old cat lady." The frown had returned by the end of her rant and she speculatively eyed my sister. Me, I was just happy that she'd stopped looking at me for a moment. If there's one word in the English language that I would use to describe my Aunt, it would be intense.

Ivy squirmed a little on the spot before her infamous temper came back into play. "What are you talking about? You're an old cat lady."

I had to give Ellen credit. She was just as explosive as Ivy and she wasn't going to be taking any of her crap either. "Be that as it may, at least I'm with Greg. Who are you dating, Ivy? When have you slowed down enough to even think about it?"

There was a prolonged silence as Ivy struggled to come up with any sort of rebuttal. I felt sorry for her and gave her a hug from behind, causing her to jump in surprise. The poor girl didn't realised she was already in love. Or maybe she did. Maybe she does know and her anger is a very convenient and effective shield so no one else can find her out. Leaving ACME might have been a calculated move to drive a wedge between her workmates and herself so that she could pursue Carmen for her own reasons. Romantic reasons. It made sense but it's not like I could just say, "Hey Ivy, have you worked out you're in love with Carmen yet or are you still unaware? What do you mean, you do now?" That totally wouldn't fly.

My mind started coming up with scenarios about how I should approach this before I did do something stupid. My thoughts were interrupted by Ellen who gasped in horror and ran back to the kitchen with a, "THE PASTA!"

Apparently the pasta was salvageable and the three of us sat down to eat. It was rather delicious despite being a little overcooked but then again since Ivy left, whenever Mom and Dad were away for a conference or ceremony (which had occurred six out of the nine nights so far) I'd been living off noodles and ice cream. So yeah, I've never actually cooked for myself before but it's on my list of things to learn.

I was regaled with tales from Ellen about Luce and Greg. Greg was short for Gregoravich, Mikhail's last name. The Russian beau was also Ellen's neighbour two doors over which is how they met. They've been together for a few years now apparently but both are content without getting married or anything. They also didn't want children so why change something that's been working well for so long? It made sense to me, anyway. I could tell Ivy was struggling with the concept.

To place herself into the talk, Ivy then summarised her knowledge of Carmen's thefts so far which caused Ellen to shake her head. "Seriously, my dear. You talk about your precious Carmen Sandiego as much as I talk about Greg. Should I free up some time in May for a spring wedding?"

Ivy's mouth fell open and she stared at her Aunt in shock. I probably would have looked similar if I hadn't just taken a mouthful of food. Rigatoni was not supposed to reach your lungs and I spent the next few moments trying to cough it back up again. Ouch. When I had recovered, I looked between the two women at the table who's eyes were staring at each other. Ellen's were dulled with sympathy as Ivy's widened with sudden understanding. Poor Ivy. Gifted detective at crimes, an idiot when it comes to relationships. A bit naive and puzzled by her surroundings, just like Alice when she fell down the rabbit hole.

Within moments Ellen had crossed the table and drew her niece into a hug. I then got to watch my sister break down. Tears flooded down her cheeks and although she was silent and I couldn't hear it, I could actually see the pain she was in. Everything she thought she knew about herself had just been thrown out the window. Her eyes zipped around as she mentally catalogued the changes that would now impact her life and I just sat there wondering what the hell I should be doing. It took another bite of my dinner, the clank of my fork on the plate caused Ivy to notice that yes, I was still in the room.

I gave her searching eyes a half smile and a shrug. The relief in her eyes made me feel more sorry for her. She must have thought I'd go off my nut at her for falling for Carmen. Seriously, as if I'd ever do that. Okay so if this had happened last year then maybe I would have but I'm older and wiser now. I know what it's like to feel something for someone that I really shouldn't. Well I suppose I should say that I'm starting to understand. It's confusing as fuck.

Ellen guided Ivy back to her chair and settled her down. We ate in relative silence. Ivy was lost in thought but my eyes were drawn to Ellen. She arched an eyebrow and I assumed she was asking me if I had known about this beforehand. I gave a little nod in response.

It was Lucifer who broke the odd mood at the table as he leapt onto Ivy's lap. We stared at the cat in shock. He always avoided Ivy like the plague and I was pretty sure the feeling was mutual. Ivy wasn't really a cat person. She smiled. For the first time since her revelation, Ivy managed a weak smile at the cat who rubbed his face against her belly with a purr.

Conversation resumed, mostly about Luce and his abrupt change in behaviour but it then moved on to other things. Although the topic of the woman in red was no longer mentioned, it was clear she was still weighing on all our minds.

I helped Ellen with the dishes while Ivy took a shower. There was a comfortable lapse in conversation between us as we concentrated on our task and soon a combat clad Ivy was leaning against the doorway of the kitchen watching us work. I was surprised, I thought she'd stop chasing Carmen for a bit to get her head together but this was the way she was. No matter the danger or finesse required, Ivy would always charge in. It had landed me in trouble quite a few times but more often then not, it seemed to work for her.

"Let's go Zack," Ivy demanded as she clenched a piece of paper in her hand. I assumed it was the latest clue Carmen had sent. I had to smile. It seems my diversionary tactic had worked. Hopefully, Ivy's welcomed interference will help to keep the thief off-balance and I can hopefully use that to my advantage at a later stage in Carmen's elaborate game.

"I'm not going anywhere. Not yet anyway. I don't even know where you're going. Anyway, you're the one that wanted to go off chasing her all around the world by yourself. I'm doing this puzzle my way." I folded my arms which probably looked ridiculous with the cloth still clasped in my hand but I was not blindly following my sister anymore. The rules of the game have changed and so have the stakes. Running blindly into this quest will not yield results. Let Ivy work herself crazy if she really wants but I'm certainly not.

Ivy looked at me in shock. She must be used to my following her lead. Well, that ship has sailed. I'd still been abandoned and that wasn't something I would let go of anytime soon. "Fine!" she huffed. "Don't expect me to bail you out of trouble again, Zackary Arthur Knight. You're on your own." With the grace of a rhinoceros, she slapped the paper onto a nearby desk, stomped out the door and slammed it on her way out. I heard a muffled voice, then the sound of the C5 express and I knew she was gone.

"Is there anyone that girl can get on with?" asked Ellen as she rolled her eyes, causing me to jump. I forgot she was still in the room.

I smiled at her. "Probably not."

Ellen returned the smile before turning back to the sink and continuing to wash the dishes. "So, I've shaken up Ivy's world today, should I do the same to you too, Zack?"

What? "Erm, you can do whatever you like, I suppose." What on Earth is she talking about?

"So tell me about your Scandinavian boyfriend," demanded my Aunt.

I dropped the glass I was drying but managed to catch it before it smashed on the floor. What was it with this woman and timing? Dude! "M-my what?" I squeaked out. "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Oh, so you're just having some fun then? Good, good. Just make sure you're using protection. Keep it safe and all that." Ellen smiled at me and I struggled to respond. At least she was sincere about her advice but at the same time, erm, WHAT?

"It's not like that. I mean, there's nothing going on. I haven't done anything. Ever. Yet?" I asked as if she could explain the mysteries of the universe to me. Perhaps I too had fallen down the rabbit hole with my sister.

"Well at least tell a little about him. I mean, you've been hearing all about Greg and you're holding out on me." Her grin widened and I felt like a small fish swimming past the open jaws of a shark.

"There's not much to tell. There's this guy at the agency and we're sort of not talking to each other at the moment but he makes me feel strange things when I want to feel normal and he's not a girl and I'm supposed to like girls but I sort of really like him instead and you should totally see the six pack he's got because it puts my muscles to shame and I just want to reach out and grab them but I can't because he's a guy and I'm a guy and I'm not supposed to like guys because only gay people do that but I'm not gay well at least I think I'm not gay but he just looks so pretty when he blushes and he's even seen me naked before although that was a complete acc..." I stopped talking as the world went black.

The feeling of something coarse rubbing along my jaw brought me back to consciousness. I gently opened my eyes to see two golden eyes shining back at me. "Hey, Lucy," I said as I scratched him behind the ears. The scathing look he shot me adequately conveyed how unimpressed he was with the name I called him. I swear, if cats could wield knives, I would be a pincushion right about now. He turned his black head away from me and leapt to the floor before he stalked off.

"I see you're awake, Zack." Ellen breezed into the room and sat on the armrest of the sofa on which I was lying near my head. I could tell she was barely restraining her laughter and I appreciated the effort.

"Yeah," I mumbled groggily. "What happened?"

A chuckle escaped my Aunt before she shakily answered, "You had a panic attack. It might have been because you said the longest sentence I've ever heard before and I don't think you once stopped for breath."

That's right, I was having a mini freak out. Possibly a major one. My sister breaks down and I overdo it. Talk about opposites.

"Have some water," demanded Ellen as she forced a glass into my hands. "Want to talk about it? In smaller, bit-sized pieces?" she suggested with a grin, green eyes sparkling.

"His name is Krow. He wanted to work with me on the case since Ivy had left but I wanted to do it myself. A few days later he stopped by to ask for some help and later I did the same to him but we got into a, well, not really a fight. An argument? A disagreement. Yeah, that. A disagreement and he basically told me to leave him alone. That was when I realised I liked him more than I should. What should I do, Ellen?" I looked imploringly at my Aunt, hoping she'd have some wisdom for me.

She shrugged. "There's only one thing to do. Man up and apologise."

I frowned. "But I wasn't..."

"It doesn't matter if it wasn't your fault, just do it. The only way things will work out is if you talk to him and that is one way to open your line to communication. Show him that you care. Remind him that you exist and that you're irresistible," said Ellen.

"You really think so?" I asked, surprised that she was giving me advice.

"How do you think Greg and I've survived? My temper's almost as bad as Ivy's. Almost."

"Okay, thanks for... Wait a minute. How did you know that I liked a guy and not a girl?" I demanded. I crossed my arms and looked down. Did I give off those sort of vibes or something?

A tinkling laugh drew my attention back to Ellen. "You don't think you or your sister got your brains from your father, did you? He's a boring senator, he wouldn't notice a naked hobo sitting on his lap. Me, I'm the brains of this operation. Okay, so not really but you're so obvious. This is the first time ever that I've seen you not wearing that hideous jacket Arthur bought you all those years ago. Instead you're wearing a red hoodie that's just as well worn with whatever language that is on the back. That's a favourite shirt but it's not your favourite shirt, it's someone else's. It's certainly not feminine so I filled in some blanks."

"He's from Norway. I forgot about the time-difference and teleported there at midnight. He thought I was a burglar and attacked me. It was so cold that he lent me his hoodie, I'd also forgotten that it was so much colder in Norway than sunny California even though it's winter at the moment." My mind transported me back to the day and I could see it all so clearly. "When we argued and he told me to leave, I was so upset (although it took me a bit to work out why) that I was too blindsided to think clearly. I asked him if he wanted it back straight away and he told me to do what I thought was right. I didn't leave it though, I just wanted to get the hell out of there and work out what was going on. It wasn't until I had washed it that I realised in my haste to leave, I'd left my own jacket there. I've been too chicken to face him yet but I really do need to get his jumper back to him."

Ellen shrugged and said, "I'm sure you'll work things out with him but there's something I really need to know."

"Yes?" I tentatively asked.

"How did your hunk of Norwegian man meat manage to see you naked?" The predatory grin on her face scared me more than any volcano or earthquake ever would. With my life at stake, I told her everything.

After an in depth discussion about feelings and emotions, I was done. Totally done. Just like I did the other night, I turned to the less complicated topic of tracking down Carmen Sandiego instead of encouraging any further introspective pursuits. Ellen had gone next door to meet up with Greg so I was given free reign of the flat and was allowed to stay as long as I liked. I snatched up the paper Ivy had left behind before and read through Carmen's latest clue.

_Ms Hepburn was having breakfast at Tiffany's but her charade was cut short by Mr Black, the father of Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa. He was not in love with Ms Stacey, the original lover. Not like that trollop, Mary Jane Watson who was never a character of Ms __Gómez-Vega __the playwright. She only wrote of unnatural acts unlike Ms Skye who naturally acts all the time. She can't say anything... but Ms Ball was loved by me. The American television star was no Ms McGonagall who was of Scottish decent. Unlike the protagonist Mr Jackson who had a more heavenly parentage. He has a constellation like Mr Ikki, the saint who was once an enemy. Now you can seiya woman like Ms Wang, the seamstress ice queen, but X does not mark the spot of the warrior princess that shall be all mine tonight, detectives. It'll be worth a chat next crime, detectives._

I was lucky. Ivy had circled the names for me and had even gone so far as to complete the next step. Even if she hadn't it was quite obvious that the first names of those people were the real clue. Since Carmen likes to play games, I suppose I should have expected her to make it more interesting. Ivy had completed the list of names with a brief description of how it matched the clue.

**Audrey** Hepburn - Actress - "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Charade."

**Cygnus** Black - Fictional Character - From the "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling.

**Gwen** Stacey - Fictional Character - "Spiderman's" first love interest in the comic books.

**Ibis **Gómez-Vega - Playwright - "Unnatural Acts."

**Ione** Skye - Actress - "Say Anything..."

**Lucille** Ball - Actress - "I Love Lucy"

**Minerva** McGonagall - Fictional Character - Also from the "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling.

**Perseus** (Percy) Jackson - Fictional Character - "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief."

**Phoenix** Ikki - Fictional Character - The manga comic "Saint Seiya."

**Vera **Wang - Seamstress and former Figure Skater.

**Xena** - _How does X not mark the spot? Where?_

Straight away I noticed that each name was in alphabetical order, like a list. Who am I kidding. It is a list. She seems rather fussed on lists at the moment, come to think of it. The last one's wrong though and I wonder if Ivy noticed it or else she'll be barking up the wrong tree. It looks like she knew something was fishy but did she put the pieces together?

Xena is wrong. Surprised? You shouldn't be. Carmen says it in her clue. Although Xena was a warrior princess (according to the television show) she clearly states that X does NOT mark the spot. Why not? Because she means Zena with a Z. She's not after anything to do with Lucy Lawless, Hercules or anything else from those shows, she's after something more specific.

What troubles me is that this is (technically) something she's tried to take before. Carmen Sandiego does not attempt the same heist twice. There is no class in it, no mastery and yet here it is. Although it was years ago, I still remember the details of how Carmen stepped up to the challenge of an old fashioned robbery where her spoils were none other than the Orient Express. Now the Orient Express closed on the fourteenth of December in 2009 but James Sherwood had purchased two of the original carriages. He later bought several others and forged a new railway, the Venice-Simplon Orient Express. Nowadays it is referred to as just the Orient Express.

The British Pullman train is the unique train of the Orient Express that features the original carriages which have been refurbished and restored. They are all named with the missing given names from before. Audrey, Cygnus, Gwen, Ibis, Ione, Lucille, Minerva, Perseus, Phoenix, Vera and Zena. That was why I knew it was with a Z, otherwise I might have thought X too. It was a cryptic clue but what isn't with Carmen anyway?

Of course the British Pullman stops all over the British countryside, so how do I know where she'll be? Simple, it's in the last part of the clue. _It'll be __**worth **__a __**chat **__next crime, detectives._ One of the stops on the line is a place called Chatsworth House. That is where she'll snatch the train. A lot of people are familiar with the house even though they may not know it as it served as the setting of Pemberley in an adaptation of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice which starred Keira Knightly.

Despite my earlier reservations about jumping heedlessly into the fray, I want to make sure that Ivy is okay so I C5'd over to Chatsworth House. The first thing I saw was Ivy desperately trying to catch Carmen as the pair raced across the lush countryside. One of Carmen's henchwomen were by her side but I couldn't tell who it was from so far away.

I let loose an unmanly squeal when a hand dropped onto my shoulder. I twisted out of the grip and turned to face my attacker. It was Krow. The blonde looked as delectable as ever and for once I didn't fight my original instinct to just look at him. He looked good. Dark denim jeans, green jacket and combat boots. So hot. I felt warmth pulse through me and took a moment to enjoy it. My moment was rudely interrupted by the Norwegian.

"Zack? What are you doing here and why are you wearing my hoodie?" he asked in a rapid-fire of questions.

I glanced guiltily at the hoodie before looking up at Krow through my hair. Maybe Ellen was right, my hair is a lot longer at the moment. Something clicked in my mind and I straightened my posture. "Like you're one to talk since you're wearing my jacket." It was so on, nobody but me wears that jacket. Carmen and Ivy were forgotten as I stared down the now sheepish looking Norwegian. This could turn out to be an interesting conversation.


	5. The Sting & Memoirs of a Carmen

G'day!

Another chapter down. I'm quite surprised that I seem to be managing a chapter per week. I'm not really one of those people with a lot of free time. Especially with how I've been devouring the Olympics. Yay!

As always, here's a little karma for my recent reviewer!

**green lion**: I'm glad you seem to like Ellen as much as I do, although I'm certain Lucifer has stolen my heart! Of course, Carmen would have to visit a form of Pemberley since she would no doubt see it as an iconic feminist landmark. A story written by a woman about a strong-willed female character. It would certainly be too much for our leading lady to resist!

Here's number five.

Enjoy, Jace.

* * *

_Chapter Five - The Sting & Memoirs of a Carmen_

Krow and I stared at each other for a few moments but the Norwegian refused to answer my question, just like I didn't answer his. I stored that parallel away in my mind and got back to business. Although Carmen had given her word about not taking advantage of Ivy, I have no idea what she'll do now since Ivy (with Aunt Ellen's help) worked it out. Suddenly this entire caper has become even more complicated. Why couldn't we have been average teenagers instead of a couple of the brightest ACME detectives of our generation?

"Hold that thought," I told the still unresponsive (although reddened) Krow, holding up a finger. What is it with this guy and his tendency to turn red at the drop of a hat? Before waiting for a word, I pelted after my sister and the woman she's been chasing for years.

"Wait, Zack!" I heard Krow yell from behind me. I didn't stop or even pause, I just had to catch up with the ladies. I heard some colourful curses in Norwegian and I screeched in surprise when two hands grabbed my sides about half a minute later. The shock caused me to stop almost immediately and a body crashed into my back sending the two of us sprawling to the floor. I rolled the heavy weight off of me with the intention of racing after Ivy but a hand grabbed my wrist and despite trying to wrench it free, I couldn't. I was well and truly trapped.

"Let go," I said somewhat venomously. My sister needs me although I doubt she knows it.

"No," came the accented reply. Krow glared at me as he started to catch his breath. "You're the one who told me not to run in like some sort of idiot. Stop being stupid."

Stupid? How dare he! He would have been out of this game weeks ago if it weren't for me and now he's calling me stupid? Mother fucker! I reined in my fury and sent him a withering glare. "Why do you care? You made yourself abundantly clear that you don't care about what happens to me. Why start now?"

The Norwegian had the good grace to shift guiltily under my menacing gaze but didn't actually answer my question.

I tried to free myself from his grasp again but he held firm and although I knew I should be chasing my sister minutes ago, I selfishly enjoyed the warmth his hand radiated. I felt something jump in my chest and wished that more of him was connecting the two of us together.

"Look," began Krow, drawing my attention from his hand to his face. "I'm sorry, okay. I sort of overreacted and I want to fix this. We've been friends for years, Zack and I don't want to lose that."

I felt both relieved that he wanted to repair whatever had happened in his bedroom a few nights ago but a little upset that he only wanted us to be friends. Now that I'd been thinking about him as a potential boyfriend curtesy of our argument and Ellen's thoughts that we already were, I'd sort of warmed to the idea that maybe we could become something more. Since he just crushed that hope, I suppose friendship was at least something. "Alright," I said with half a smile. "If that's what you want."

"Well," started Krow with a pinch of indecision. Against my will, I felt my heart speed up. Could he want more? "We could always work the rest of this case together." Just as quickly, I felt my heart sink. Hopefully I didn't project how absurdly disappointed I was. Ivy always used to tease me about being easy to read but the last thing I wanted was for Krow to realise that I may have some feelings for him when he quite clearly didn't have any for me.

"Sure, that'd be great," I hopefully smiled at him. If it were a little forced, the Scandinavian didn't seem to notice much to my relief.

Krow rose to his feet and obligingly hauled me to my mine. I looked around and saw no one about. No doubt Ivy and Carmen were long gone. There was no reason for the pair of us to be wandering the English countryside anymore so we C5'd back to my place. I sat at my desk and Krow stood behind me as I added the Zena car of the Orient Express to the steadily growing list on my noticeboard.

Clearing his throat to garner my attention, Krow excused himself and he C5'd back to Norway to collect his current case notes. He was back within moments and we pooled our limited knowledge on Carmen's acts so far. We came to three conclusions we're absolutely certain about. One. Carmen was definitely stealing these objects for a specific reason. Whatever that reason might be is still a complete mystery to us but there was certainly a method to her madness. Two. These objects were being stolen in a particular order. Although it wasn't a fact, the pair of us were quite certain the order was as important as the objects themselves. Three. Despite the fact we were both present at a couple of thefts, we hadn't been removed from the chase. We knew this because we hadn't been ejected from the ACME agency like most of the others. I had a feeling that my original visit may have been the reason Carmen was letting the detectives off easy. Apparently only those who had tried to capture her had been kicked off the case.

I stepped out of my chair, turned to Krow and hugged him. The Norwegian looked at me with wide eyes, caught off guard by my unexpected mauling. "Thanks," I stated quietly. "I would have lost my chance to catch Carmen if you hadn't stopped me."

Krow awkwardly hugged me back with a small grin. "No problem, Zack. I know how much you want arrest her."

I didn't say anything about protecting my sister from her criminal of a love interest and instead reluctantly released the guy I was steadily falling for. "What were you doing there anyway? I know you weren't there to stop me from being a complete moron." I sent the guy a sheepish smile which he returned without the sheepishness.

"I was scoping out the competition." The Norwegian seemed proud and I must admit the concept of a stakeout hadn't really occurred to me. Since Carmen was sending us her clues directly, I never felt the need to physically be at any of those robberies (with the obvious couple of exceptions) and I felt a swell of respect for Krow. It was quite clever. If he stayed out of sight, he might just overhear something which could answer all our questions.

"Did you discover anything?" I asked with excitement.

The Norwegian frowned. "Well, not really. I've only been tailing Carmen since our... whatever it was. Look, I'm sorry I snapped at you. I was tired and..."

I held out a hand, causing Krow's words to halt. "No, it's me who's sorry. I bumbled into your place and made you feel like some sort of cheap replacement for my sister when really... really, I was lonely." I looked away. I didn't want to see how he was looking at me. "My folks are never around and when they are, it's not much of an improvement. Dad's a senator and his job has always come before his family and Mom's an Air Force Pilot and can't really refuse a mission. National security and all that jazz. Then Ivy left because she wants Carmen all to herself and the one person who'd been there for me was gone." I really didn't want to cry but I felt tears forming in my eyes.

To my surprise warm arms enveloped me and I blubbered. Despite knowing in mere minutes I would be mortified at myself, the tears continued to stream down my face. I also couldn't stop the words from falling out of my mouth. "I'm so sorry Krow but you need to know that you're the only person I've ever wanted to work with beside Ivy and Tatiana. I only worked with them over you because they're my real family and I never made that clear. You had every right to kick me out like the insensitive ass I am."

Krow made some shushing noises and patted my back. "It's okay, Zack," he soothed and eventually my tears slowed and stopped altogether. He'd held me the entire time and a small part of me basked in the knowledge that at the very least the man cared. "You have nothing to worry about any longer. We're working together now and you're not on your own anymore." My heart warmed even though I knew he meant as a colleague. It was nice to pretend that he meant it as something more but that obviously wasn't the case.

We were interrupted from our conversation by the tones of my wristwatch. I clicked a button and my girl Tatty popped into existence on my noticeboard. "Hey Zack, I just wanted to..." her words trailed off as she noticed Krow. "What are you doing here?" she asked in confusion.

Krow looked my way and I answered, "We're working on the case together."

Her eyes locked with mine and widened in surprise. She couldn't tell that I may be a little infatuated with him just by looking at me right? "What's the matter? Why've you been crying?" Oh. That. I internally sighed with relief before shrugging it off.

"It doesn't matter, Tatty. What were you going to ask me?" I questioned, hoping to avert her interest. It was bad enough that Krow witnessed me breaking down, I certainly didn't want my best friend to know about it too.

Thankfully my tactic worked although she eyed me with distrust. I guiltily shifted on the spot. She said, "I was just wondering if you were still active. The only other agent that I know of that's still on the go is Jasmine." She smirked at my slight grimace. Only my girl knew how much I disliked the Jamaican detective ever since she beat me in the Detective of the Year competition all those years ago. "So the great Carmen Sandiego still eludes you?" she asked with a vicious smirk.

I frowned at her. "Well she's obviously doing the same to you, Tatiana."

The Russian woman returned my frown with one of her own. "Since when have you called me that, Zackary?"

I blanched and pouted. "Sorry, I've been a little on edge lately. Carmen's running rings around us and there seems to be little we can do to stop her."

Tatiana's expression softened. "Never fear, we'll work something out. Hopefully before we're all that's left of the agency."

It was as if I'd seen the light. "Tatty, you're a genius!" I praised as I snapped my fingers.

"I am?" she asked in surprise.

"She is?" also asked Krow, speaking for the first time and gaining Tatty's attention.

"Of course I am, Krow-spew..." started Tatiana, an icy glare on her face.

"Krossbyr," I interrupted automatically causing the pair to look at me, Tatiana with suspicion and Krow with a small smile. At least I'd stopped what was likely to be a rather heated argument if Tatty got her way.

"So how am I a genius this time?" asked Tatty as she thankfully chose to ignore Krow.

"Carmen's not so slowly shutting down the ACME agency. Well, why can't we do the same thing to her? Her conditions included one shot at her but from what I remember, she said nothing about her henchmen. They're fair game. If we whittle them down by arresting them, Carmen will be forced to thieve the items personally and without back up."

"It sounds more like you're the genius, not Tatters," muttered Krow.

Tatty either didn't hear or chose to ignore him. "That's true," she agreed (with me and not Krow) before signing off to hunt down some criminals.

Krow sighed with relief and I couldn't help but smirk at him. I never had to worry about it (unless I really managed to piss her off) so sometimes I forgot exactly how imposing my Russian princess could be. Krow glared at me in response, causing me to break out in giggles.

"Chief," I called out when I recovered my wits. "Can you compile a list of Carmen's known henchmen that are still at large?" I asked when the floating head bobbled into existence.

"Sure thing Zackamundo." Almost immediately a piece of paper C5'd into existence on my bed and Krow retrieved it. I thanked the chief and the two of us poured over it.

Fast Eddie B

Robin Banks

Nick Brunch

Len "Red" Bulk

Irma Dillow

Katherine "Boom Boom" Drib

Sandy Dunes

Scar Graynolt

Ihor Ihoravich

Merey LaRoc

Li Non Mee

Bessie May Mucho

Sarah Nade

Dazzle Annie Nonker

Sam O'Nella

Rosa Sarrosas-Arroz

Yul B. Sorry

Bjorn Toulouse

Lady Agatha Wayland

So there were nineteen henchmen at large. That gave us plenty of opportunity to hunt them down and arrest them to force Carmen to do all the dirty work herself. She'd be much less likely to make a mistake since it was usually her bumbling henchmen that did that but there would be no more distractions. Like Lady Agatha Wayland. Now that I had the list in front of me, the frumpy old lady with flaming red hair was definitely the woman who was fleeing the scene earlier with Carmen. No doubt she was there purely as a diversion since she was a retired old lady who spent her days reading mystery novels.

The henchwoman was definitely an odd choice for Carmen. She had few abilities that would be of use to the master criminal. In a few ways, she reminded Zack of Miss Marple. Miss Marple was Agatha Christie's second most well known detective from her many novels. She came across as a dottery old woman but she used that to her advantage by harnessing her experience with human nature and utilising her knowledge of the character of an individual to determine motives and means. Many a culprit was arrested due to her sleuthing skills since they often discounted her because of her age.

Maybe there was more to Lady Agatha Wayland too. Perhaps Carmen had chosen this woman for this particular theft for a reason. If she did however, Zack couldn't work out why.

I was interrupted from my thoughts as a couple of pieces of paper were C5'd into existence. One was addressed to me and the other to Krossbyr. I collected mine and read through the words.

_Zack Knight._

_At the moment I believe you to be my most dangerous adversary. You have not been going about my case as I originally thought you would and of all the thirty-six remaining detectives, only you have a personal stake in this caper. I borrowed the C5 corridor for this delivery and I admit I would have much preferred to have this particular mode of transportation when I was an agent for ACME as opposed to jetting around the world manually. Good luck with my latest clue. I thought it was about time you enjoyed a more hand's on type of clue._

_Carmen Sandiego._

Thirty-six? That's all we had left? No wonder Chief had been sounding desperate lately. Even worse is that there are sixty-four crimes left to be committed. Thank God I sent Ivy after her or the world would be hers to plunder, practically unhindered by the agency.

I flipped the paper over and discovered the other side was decorated by what appeared to be some kind of hand-drawn image. There were shapes like semi-circles, floral vine-like motifs, animals and pretty much anything else on a light brown background. It was quite an odd assortment. There was however something that didn't seem to fit. There were two blood red Japanese characters in the centre. The only way I could tell they were Japanese and not some other sort of language was because I recognised one of them.

I looked over at Krow. He was examining the picture as well. "I think these are the key," he said as he gestured to the characters.

"Yeah," I agreed. "This one is kokoro. It means mind, spirit or heart. That one? I have no idea. There are well over three thousand kanji used in everyday life in Japan so it's hardly surprising that I don't know what it is."

"Maybe we should get in contact with someone who does," suggested Krow.

I sighed as I sent a request to speak with Ayako but I was refused. I mentally slapped my forehead. Tatty just said that the only other agent we communicated with on a somewhat regular basis was Jasmine. Ayako must have tried to catch Carmen too and obviously failed. Damn. I knew no one else. Neither did Krow. Well this complicates matters.

A sudden inspiration hit me and I brought my laptop over to my desk. When it eventually loaded (I totally need to upgrade it soon, it's way too slow) I opened the internet browser and loaded a page from my favourites. "This was a little discovery of mine a few months ago. It's a kanji search engine. You draw a kanji into it and it searches for similar characters. The main problem is that you have to enter the strokes in the correct order for it to work and this one looks like it's got about twelve or so. It might take a while to crack."

Krow shrugged and watched as I tried my luck. No joy. I got it wrong. "My turn," demanded the Norwegian but he failed too. We traded goes a couple of times without success when Krow piped up, "Why don't we make this a little more interesting?"

"What do you have in mind?" I asked with suspicion.

The Norwegian smirked. "The guy who works it out gets to choose what we eat for lunch. Loser buys."

"Deal," I easily agreed before trying to crack the kanji again without success.

To my disappointment, it was Krow who eventually guessed the correct sequence of the kanji. "I win!" he gloated with a smirk.

I good-naturedly rolled my eyes but I was soon frowning at the definition of the kanji. It meant a pouch. Mind pouch? Spirit pouch? Heart pouch? It didn't make much sense.

Krow seemed just as confused as I was. "Why don't we grab lunch and come back to this?" suggested Krow to which I quickly agreed.

Maybe the clue got him in the mood but I soon found myself sitting at the bar of a sushi train. The Japanese delicacies moved by on the conveyor belt, begging to be eaten by the hungry patrons. I willingly obliged and slammed down quite a few portions. Since I was already paying, I may as well make sure I'm full. Krow ate a little less ravenously and was still halfway through a plate of salmon sushi when I finished mine. I watched the Norwegian as he happily munched on his lunch. It almost felt a bit like a date but I was probably reading too much into the situation and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be thinking of it in that way anyway.

Krow noticed my gaze and asked, "Wa?" through his mouthful of sushi.

"Nothing," I shrugged in reply.

Krow's look turned a little dubious but instead of commenting, he polished off the rest of his meal. He reached for his napkin but froze in surprise. "That's it!" he screeched. Krow picked up the napkin that had been folded into the shape of a lotus blossom and waved it in my face.

"Huh?" was my eloquent reply.

"I thought something was off about that note before. The Japanese kanji was a hint about what we need to do to make the clue." The Norwegian smiled, pleased with himself.

"What do you mean, make the clue?" I asked in confusion. Very little of his explanation made sense to me.

"Come on Zack. What Japanese thing involves square paper? Carmen said it was hand's on for a reason." The light reflecting off Krow's teeth momentarily distracted me before I shook it off and my brain finally ground into gear.

"So you think this has something to do with origami, the Japanese art of paper folding?" I asked when I finally realised where he was going with this.

"Yeah and I also think the kanji tell us what we need to fold it as."

He all but C5'd us out of there but I stopped him to pay for the meal first. He blushed and tried to pay for his food but I steadfastly refused. A bet was a bet. When the bill was fixed, we returned to my room.

"I don't know how we could fold this into a mind or spirit but I'm pretty sure we could make a heart," I decided as we stared at our respective pieces of paper. "The only problem is I don't know how to do it." For possibly the fourth time in my entire existence, I actually wished I could talk to Ayako (the little bitch) but I couldn't. How were we going to work this one out?

Krow jumped onto the laptop (well, not literally or I would have had to kick his ass) and pulled up another image search on Google. He typed in **Origami heart instructions** and the page loaded with many results. Just as he was about to click on one, I shrieked in delight causing the poor guy to jump.

"Check that one out," I said as I gestured to a picture of a heart that was also an envelope to put a small message in. "An envelope is a letter pouch..."

"...And this one's a heart too," finished Krow, running his hand through his hair in his excitement. He opened it up and we looked at the instructions. They didn't seem too complicated but then again, I'm no expert.

Krow tried it out and mangled his note. The heart sort of turned out but we couldn't see how it was a useful clue. It wasn't until I realised that the paper might be upside down that I thought I'd try my hand at making an origami heart for myself. With the note in front of me instead of the picture, I folded the paper as directed. It wasn't pretty by any means but my heart turned out too. Although I thought I'd worked it out, neither Krow or I could make heads or tails of the damn thing. We tossed them on the floor in disgust and unwillingly gave up on the theft. At least there were still sixty-three other chances remaining.

I couldn't help but find the small wrinkle on Krow's brow incredibly cute as he glared at the useless clues on the floor. I managed to wipe my expression when he looked up at me. "I should probably be going..." he started.

"NO!" I shouted before I could stop myself. "I mean, if we're going to be working on this together, well, we should be in the one place. Stay here for a while." I suggested in a rush. "I have a feeling we'll need to combine our brains often if we're going to catch Carmen."

The blond looked at me, weighing his options. His sea green eyes flitted about as he thought. They soon settled back on me and Krow decided, "If you think it'll help the case, I will."

I could have danced around my room but wisely restrained myself. Of course it would be way too obvious to invite the guy to sleep in my bed so instead I offered him an inflatable camping mattress to sleep on. Mom and Dad would have been less than impressed if they went to go to bed (on the off chance they were actually home) only to find a foreigner asleep in it already. Goldilocks anyone? I also highly doubted the man would ever try to sleep in a room with hideous pink wallpaper and several posters of death metal bands so Ivy's room was also out. What a damn shame, he'll have to stay in my room. I fetched the mattress and the small pump to blow it up with. I started the laborious task, all the while assuring Krow that my parents won't mind him being here. They barely knew if their children were home, let alone a guest. There would be no problems on that account.

I was about to collect some blankets and things when Krow let out a strangled cry. "Look at this!" he squealed in a cute sort of way. I turned my eyes to one of the hearts we'd made (I think it was mine) except he was holding it upside down. "I've seen this before."

"What?" I asked in complete confusion.

"Not the heart, just this part." He pointed to a bent portion of the paper with the illustration on it. The semi-circle sort of looked like a bridge this way. "It's a boomerang, an ancient weapon from Australia. Chief," he called out excitedly.

The (sort of) man in question popped into existence. "Hey, why wasn't I invited to the slumber party?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes as Krow started talking at the floating head, "Never mind that, where can we find this particular boomerang? Carmen's after it."

Chief sniffed, unimpressed. "Why should I tell you? It's not like you're going after her anyway."

Krow frowned at the unhelpful Chief. "But Chief..." he annoyingly whined.

The chief of ACME blanched at the awful sound. "Alright, alright, alright. Quite your moaning. That particular boomerang is a typical example of many that were made in the 1920s and 30s. It's made of mangrove wood and features a poker-worked design with a wattle sprig and geometric pattern at each end. The central motif is of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The back contains a dedication to Jim Kenney from Tommie Foster. The boomerang is currently on display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia."

"Thanks," beamed Krow.

"Don't mention it, my Norwegian crime stopper..." began Chief before Krow called on the player to C5 us to Australia. It was worth it to see the chief's surprised face before we were sucked to the other side of the world.

We materialised outside the museum and gained entry to the exhibit we were looking for. We entered the room and quickly found the real version of the boomerang Carmen Sandiego was after because the scarlet clad thief already had it in her grasp. The glass case which once held the treasure had a circle cut out of it and I suspected she'd used some sort of laser. By her side stood one of her henchmen.

Our abrupt appearance must have surprised the thief. She clutched the ancient weapon in her gloved hands and smiled at us. "Well, well, well. I never thought I'd be meeting you here, Zack and Krow. It's a pity you won't catch me."

"Good," I smirked.

"Excellent," agreed Krow as he folded his arms.

Carmen frowned. "I don't understand what's so good or excellent about that," remarked the super thief. She tilted her head a little.

I circled the room to the left as Krow went to the right. When we were on opposite sides of the room I gave Krow a signal, telling him to wait. Although he looked a little impatient he followed the command. Just as the tension in the room seemed to ease a little, Ivy busted into the room (as I knew she probably would) sending the five us immediately into action.

Carmen did what comes naturally to her. A gun was pulled from one of her many red trench coat pockets and she shot a cable to the roof. Within moments, she lifted into the air just out of the reach of my sister who howled with contempt at being thwarted once again. Carmen did not make her escape immediately, she stood stoically on a beam which traversed the roof and watched the scene below.

Krow and I launched ourselves at the man by the recently raided display case. We knocked him over quite quickly and mere seconds later, Krow had cuffed the man who turned out to be the Australian beach bum and pickpocket, Sandy Dunes. His blue eyes glowered at us as I dragged him to his feet. I almost let him go in shock when Carmen's voice floated about the room. Naturally I had thought she'd made her escape already.

"Turnabout is fair play I suppose detectives. I did make this a game of last woman standing after all. I should have anticipated you would do the same. Go ahead, try to arrest my colleagues. It will do you no good in the end. I will pull of the theft of a lifetime and there's nothing you can do..."

Carmen's rich voice was abruptly cut off as she fell from the rafters. She had been too busy gloating at Krow and I to notice Ivy had taken one of the other boomerangs from the display case and hurled it at the thief. Ivy cheered her shot as she sprinted to where the woman had fallen. Just as she reached Carmen, the woman rolled to the side and agilely leapt to her feet. The two women faced each other much like two gunslingers in an old Western movie.

As always, it was Ivy who attacked first. She threw a kick at Carmen who somersaulted backward twice and safely out of the way. "Goodbye, my dear Ivy. Until next we meet," said Carmen before she leapt at a now nearby window which we all neglected to notice was open (it must have been how she got into the museum in the first place) and soared away on a hang glider which appeared from the back of her coat.

Although Ivy was upset with the outcome, Krow and I were not. We'd secured one of Carmen's trusted allies. There were eighteen to go but at least we'd made a start.


End file.
